


What makes a god?

by theirblinggirl



Category: VIXX
Genre: Dragon AU, M/M, NO kind of bestiality, also overuse of sea-related imagery, brief descriptions of violence, dragon!Taekwoon, his soul is a dragon ok but not his body, honestly this whole thing is an ode to hakyeon, human!Hakyeon, kinda vague descriptions of sex, over-exaggerated descriptions of cha hakyeon, this is basically just an excuse to write a million words about how great hakyeon is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-16
Updated: 2019-04-16
Packaged: 2020-01-15 03:13:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 27,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18490165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theirblinggirl/pseuds/theirblinggirl
Summary: "Legends say that the Four Elder Dragons, Firstborns of Heaven, came from the skies, shaping the world into what we know today, before retreating to the mystical lands they call Shangri-La, where it’s always spring and summer and fall and winter at the same time, and the air is ever-rich with the scent of peach trees.This story, however, isn’t about the Great Elders, or the creation of the world as we know it.This story is about one lone boy of a dragon and one curious dragon of a boy – and more than anything, this story is about them learning not to be lonely anymore."Alternatively, Taekwoon thinks he's happy living in his seaside cave with his dragon soulmate and he does not want anything to do with those nasty humans, thank you very much.That is, until a great big storm brings Hakyeon quite literally to their feet.





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So this story is kind-of a spinoff from a Woogyu story of a friend of mine (which is sadly unavailable on the internets), but also quite possibly the best, nicest thing I've ever made so, here we go. I made the prologue to give a little bit of world-building context, but I'm told it's completely understandable without it too.
> 
> Music to listen to: anything&everything by Florence & The Machine, especially [What the Water Gave Me](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am6rArVPip8) and [Never Let Me Go](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMBTvuUlm98), also the discography by Of Monsters and Men, especially [Slow Life](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEnrZGYOhoA) and [Your Bones](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXUloVYbchg) and [Thousand Eyes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wylkSUS9Ofs) , Taekwoon's 'Dream', VIXX's 'Shangri-La' and 'Sorry' by Kim Sunggyu.

 

Legends say that the Four Elder Dragons, Firstborns of Heaven, came from the skies, shaping the world into what we know today, before retreating to the mystical lands they call Shangri-La, where it’s always spring and summer and fall and winter at the same time, and the air is ever-rich with the scent of peach trees.

They also say all dragons descended from them. They say that these dragons, majestic and magical, ancient and wise, lived among men, that people worshipped them as gods, bestowing them with riches and gifts and adoration, in exchange for favors and gifts, for the Sun and the Stars and the gentle South Breeze, for a myriad favors of the mountains and the winds and the seas and the flames.

They say that after a while, men grew tired, living under the rule of dragons, and drove them away, and the dragons hid, leaving only a few of their still-loyal servants behind.

What they don’t say is that dragons fled because the growing greed of men chased them away. What they don’t say is that still they kept watching over them, helping and guiding from the shadows. What they don’t tell is how, in their darkest hour, they still came, giving men the greatest gift yet – a sliver of their very own immortal soul, merged together, binding dragon and human inseparably into greater, stronger, more magical beings than the world had seen since the Elders. The people of dragons – the dragons of the people.

What they don’t talk about is how these dragons that are people that are dragons, still live amongst men – on the highest mountain tops and the deepest forests, they still remain, watching over, and that their magic continues to weave the fabric of the universe.

This story, however, isn’t about the Great Elders, or the creation of the world as we know it.

This story is about one lone boy of a dragon and one curious dragon of a boy – and more than anything, this story is about them learning not to be lonely anymore.

 

_"In the arms of the ocean, so sweet and so cold_  
_And all this devotion, well, I never knew at all_  
_And the questions I have for a sinner released_  
_In the arms of the ocean deliver me_  
_Never let me go-"_

 


	2. What makes a god?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Between the daylight  
> And the deep sea  
> Lies a swarm of silhouettes  
> Floating aimlessly  
> "But I’m a mountain  
> I am a killer  
> You’ll get lost and buried deep  
> If you swim with me  
> You caught me in the tide  
> And I caught you  
> Sheltered by the night  
> Red in tooth and red in claw"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The spacing is weird however I edit it but this feels the easiest on the eyes for me...

At first, there was water.

_(Push - pull. Push - pull. The in and the out of the tide.)_

 

At first, there was water.

It had been there for as long as Taekwoon’s memories reached. The deep, encompassing, infinite ocean, and the voice calling out to him from its depths - his own voice, distorted, and another, echoing back. Always calling, always taunting, pulling him in.

He never forgot the first time it called out to him - in a dream, and once more right after he woke, clutching at his sheets, drenched in sweat, trembling and shocked, afraid of waking his sister sleeping next to him in the cramped bed, terrified of the whispers somehow escaping his own head and someone else hearing them too. He’d only been five or six years old, but he knew already that the words were only meant for him to hear.

‘Where are you?’ they prodded, showing him flashes of deep, soothing darkness when he asked the same, and although he should have been afraid, every fiber in his body relaxed with ease at the sight of the ocean behind his closed eyelids, even back when he did not hear the word ‘ocean’ in his life before.

 

Taekwoon had been born on dry land, deep within the shores, mountain ranges and heavy rivers separating him from the sea, from his true nature, from his self becoming whole. It wasn’t long, however, after the first calling, that the land spat him out, his family casting him aside and his town sending him away - with gifts and with fear, with doubts and with prayers. He’d been born in a superstitious era, amidst a superstitious people, to a superstitious family, and no-one dared taunting their stars by keeping him, but no-one dared defying them by hurting him either.

 

Taekwoon had found his way to endless shores somehow, delirious with hunger and fatigue and the voice of waves beckoning from the depths of his dreams. He since learned what he couldn’t have known back then - that the sea often calls to young dragons in a hazy nightmare, taunting their minds and bewitching their thoughts, until they start their journey like empty ghosts, stolen from the breasts of their mothers, forsaking the safety of their homes. As the pale moon that pulls the tides, it pulls younglings like tortoise hatched fresh from their delicate eggs, shells soft and exposed to all manner of hungry beasts. The sea only takes the best - strongest, smartest, luckiest. The rest is food, a sacrifice to the laws of nature, breakfast for hungry sea monsters.

But as much as the seas take, they always give back. They gave Taekwoon Bō - gave Bō Taekwoon, and then, years and years and years later, they gave them Hakyeon, too.

 

There was a big storm that day, a storm unlike any they’ve seen in many years. The waves roared as they lay siege to the outer walls of the cavern, and the muddy waters rose high in the inner pools, flooding many of Bō’s favored treasures.

The dragon was restless, roaring curses at the water as he continued to pile his possessions higher and higher, but the foaming water kept reaching out to them, kept touching and tainting and wetting and stealing them, much to his dismay.

 

Atop a higher, flat rock, Taekwoon tried to meditate, as he often did during a storm, letting his consciousness wander freely atop roaring waves. Away from his body, he soared high and dove in deep, relishing in the way ragged lightning bolts ran through his ethereal form to touch the water, lighting up the horizon and uncovering countless restlessly moving forms underwater for a split second. The dwellers of the sea paid no attention to the storm above waters, but were still stirred up by the heavy waves. The small ones let it carry them weightlessly while the big ones fought, valiant but fruitless, and the ancient ones, the truly big ones woke from their slumber to huff disapprovingly at the commotion above their giant, barnacle-covered heads.

 

But sea creatures weren’t the only ones the storm threw around to its own amusement. Without eyes, Taekwoon still saw boats tumble atop the sea, rising and falling at its whimsy, saw grand old vessels battle and break, saw tiny sailboats scurrying to shore, specks of fishing boats helplessly tossing around as their nets broke, freeing whatever prey they were hoping to bring home. Heard the screams and prayers of voyagers and merchants and fishermen as the sea swallowed them up and pulled them under - he paid them no mind. They were not praying to them.

 

He did not see, however, the tiny, ancient rowboat being thrown right against the high, proud rocks that hid his home from view from seaside, nor hear the desperate wail of its sole passenger as he jumped into an oncoming wave, just moments before his boat crashed.

He was so immersed in the grandness of the storm and the soothing rhythm of the waves that he completely missed the one gift (curse, flotsam, treasure) they were pushing and pulling straight to his feet, up until the moment when it was too late.

 

It was a human, fighting for air as he broke the surface before the waves closed up above his head. It was a body, struggling and rolling and thrashing in the water before relaxing, just a tad bit too late, and letting itself be carried. If Taekwoon had seen him then, he may have told him that fighting the sea never bears fruit, and your only chance is always to give yourself up to it. Although, if Taekwoon knew him, he’d have known that some people just don’t have surrender in their veins.

But Taekwoon only saw him when the waves finally overpowered his weak struggles and dragged him under, down and down into dark depths, rolled him across jagged rocks and finally spit him up again, right at the mouth of Taekwoon and Bō’s cavern, just as his consciousness flickered out.

 

Taekwoon was jolted out of his meditation by a soft, painful moan, and the deep, guttural rumbling that answered it from the deep end of the cave. It was almost completely dark here in the first cavern, with the storm hiding the afternoon sun and the tide high, cutting off any stray light from the outside that could have sneaked through the thick clouds. Taekwoon and Bō couldn’t see what - who - lay on the flat stones by the water, but it sounded decidedly human, and people made Taekwoon vary, so he held a quiet hand out to Bō, silently asking the dragon to stay back. Bō wasn’t nearly as cautious as Taekwoon, but twice as curious, so it took a moment or two of quiet whispers to convince him not to jump out and sniff around the motionless figure.

With a flick of his wrist, Taekwoon called forth a small, trembling flame - fire never came easy to him, and he had long grown out of his need of it’s warmth, but he had a gut feeling that maybe he’d need it.

He could smell the blood slowly oozing from countless scratches even as he approached the person, but he could not hear breathing. Probably dead, Taekwoon thought, but still he kneeled down to make sure, all the while asking himself and his gods what kind of mess he was getting into now.

 

Up close, he could tell that it was a man, maybe just a boy even, with dark hair matted to his unnaturally pale face, slim limbs all bent in ways that made him look somewhat crushed but not completely broken.

There was life still flickering inside him, to the rhythm of Taekwoon’s tiny flame.

 

‘Food?’ Bō asked, his voice echoing in the cavern and inside Taekwoon’s head all the same.

 

‘...no.’ he finally sighed, after some careful consideration. ‘We’re not eating him.’

 

‘No?’ Bō huffed disapprovingly, but his attention was quickly waning. Even after this many years, Taekwoon found that the dragon sometimes still possessed the attention span of a child.

 

‘No, Bō. We’re saving him.’

 

‘Why?’ the dragon asked, his giant head swaying slowly between the human and his pile of treasures, as if he couldn’t decide which was more worth of his clearly precious time.

And why, indeed, Taekwoon asked himself. What have humans ever done for him that would warrant his help?

But as he watched the boy, shivering even while unconscious, his body trying so desperately to cling onto his short, fragile life, Taekwoon realized that he’d decided the moment he first saw him.

‘Because we aren’t monsters like them.’

 

~*~

 

It took Taekwoon almost two days to nurse the young castaway into full consciousness. He made him a bed of sorts, from painstakingly dried clothes and rugs and fabrics, many of which he had to wrestle away from Bō from his closely guarded treasury, but Taekwoon figured some blood and sweat wasn’t gonna do the once expensive brocats and silks and rugs any more damage than an over-excited dragon.

 

‘I’m not letting him have my stuff! I’ll eat him before I let him have my stuff, Taekwoon’ Bō rumbled, trying in vain to get around Taekwoon standing over the injured man protectively. He stirred in his sleep, shivering and whispering something incoherent, and Taekwoon noticed with an exasperated sigh that he was burning up again.

 

‘We are not giving it to him, you idiot. He’s just.. He needs them more than you do for now. He’s not taking them anywhere, see?’ he rolled his eyes, pushing Bō’s great snout aside to change his bandages.

Well, Bō probably wasn’t gonna want those particular silks back after this, but it wasn’t like Taekwoon would tear up his own clothes for bandages.

 

‘He doesn’t look like he’s taking anything anywhere soon, does he?’ he kept muttering, more to himself than to the dragon, pushing away the wet locks of hair sticking to the boy’s sweating, burning forehead.

He kept coming in and out of his fewer, and although Taekwoon made sure that his wounds would not get infected and pulled all seawater from his lungs, none of his, admittedly lacking, healing magic seemed enough to bring his temperature down for good.

 

‘Don’t die on me, kid’ he muttered, lowering himself down next to him. He kept running his own icy fingers across the boy’s too warm forehead and temples, just watching him gasp and wrinkle his face in his sleep. ‘I’ve already put too much effort into you. And you’re probably way too young to die, anyway…’

 

‘Can he hear you?’ Bō wondered, his face reappearing just above Taekwoon’s head. He carefully lowered his chin down onto Taekwoon’s shoulder and joined him in watching their patient, the strong puffs of air from Bō’s nose ruffling his hair every now and then.

 

‘Maybe. But I doubt he understands… If he did, he’d be waking up already’ Taekwoon shook his head, and he must’ve felt more resentment than he thought he did, because Bō gently rubbed his cheek against him in a soothing gesture.

 

‘Why are we watching him then?’

 

‘I don’t… Well, he must’ve been quite the sight, before he crashed and went into a coma…’ Taekwoon murmured, half to himself and half to Bō, pressing on the wrinkles between his brows with a careful finger, and then running it down the slope of his tiny nose and his cheeks that were getting more and more sunken by each day, before he noticed himself and quickly pulled his hand away. ‘I mean… his skin is still softer than it should be, after all this fewer… and his lips are paper now but they must be quite pretty, when there’s, you know, a proper color to them....’

 

‘I don’t know, Taekwoon, how can lips be pretty?’ Bō tilted his head, and Taekwoon had half the mind to answer him, to actually explain to him about the flowers and the bees, but then he caught his own train of thoughts and snapped out of it, because what…?’

 

‘Oh shut up, what am I supposed to be doing, anyways? If he’s not waking up soon, he’s as good as dead, so…’

 

‘Well, then, wake him up!’ Bō snorted, like Taekwoon was being the obnoxious one, and Taekwoon was just about to snap back at him, when the dragon rolled his eyes and closed them, and Taekwoon felt Bō’s consciousness creeping into his own head.

 

The sensation was warm and familiar and safe, Bō filling his thoughts and him filling Bō’s, the borders of their separate bodies blurring and shifting as they reached deep into themselves and into each other.

 

When they opened their eyes, the world was swimming in a pale cerulean hue, and they saw the boy clinging desperately to the life that was seeping out of him with every breath, saw the flames of the fever eating away at his heart and his brain and his insides. So they raised their hands and called to the icy waters of the North, and then closed their palms around his slender, delicate face and let their magic trickle into his veins, until the sickly blush started to fade from his face and his chest and the sheen of sour sweat dried.

His skin broke out in goosebumps and his lips curled around unintelligible, painful syllables, and then they caressed his face and whispered a soft but commanding, ‘Wake up!’.

His eyes shot open and he stared into theirs just long enough for them to notice the deep, mesmerizing onyx of them.

And then he screamed.

 

It took quite some time for Taekwoon to calm him enough to speak - after an almost same amount of convincing Bō to stay to the back of the cavern because it was, in fact, him that was frightening the boy.

 

‘Who are you?’ he finally asked when his voice returned. He was curled up and into himself with one of the sheets of his earlier bed wrapped protectively around him, his back pressed into the wall of the cavern. His eyes kept darting up and then down at his own feet again, as if he was equally terrified of looking directly at Taekwoon and of not seeing what he was up to as well. Taekwoon saw that he kept shaking, but also that there was more than terror burning in his eyes when he glanced up at him.

There was plenty of defiance in there too.

 

‘I’m… someone that saved your life’ Taekwoon said, crouching down in front of him with slow and deliberate movements, even though his head was spinning - why did he want so bad to reassure him, but reluctant to give away his own name? And why, how, could someone so blatantly human have such soul-searing, imprisoning intensity in their gaze?

 

‘I saw a… That’s… there’s a dragon, isn’t there?’ the boy kept going, seemingly satisfied with Taekwoon’s half-answer for now. Taekwoon noticed how there was ‘monster’ just on the tip of his tongue, and how he bit it back, and for some reason, his breath came easier at this.

Somewhere behind his back, in the dark belly of the cavern, Bō’s soft growl echoed the sentiment.

To Taekwoon’s ears, it sounded like the purring of an enormous cat, but the human boy in front of him shook and hugged himself closer again. He was scared nearly out of his mind, Taekwoon could see it as much as feel it, the stench of fear rolling off of him in strong, nauseating waves, but he was fighting back his tears - frozen with horror but defiant still.

 

‘Yes’ Taekwoon nodded, because why would he try and deny it?

 

Then he reached out with a hand, and the boy stared at his waiting palm for a few long seconds, before seemingly making up his mind and taking it. Taekwoon let the dams of his mind open, just the slightest, pushing his thoughts of safety and serenity and home - the thoughts he associated with Bō’s purring - to wash gently over the boy.

 

‘And in a way, I am a dragon, too. Which is why you’re safe. You’re safer here, with us, than you’ll ever be, I promise you that.’

 

The boy swallowed, nervous and loud, and then let Taekwoon pull him to his feet by the hand he was still holding. He stumbled almost immediately, and Taekwoon had to half-carry him back to the pile of his bed. By the time he lit a fire to warm up some soup, the boy fell into a state of quiet trance, and his dark, dark eyes didn’t even flinch anymore when Taekwoon stroked up the flames with a little wave of his hand.

 

By the time Taekwoon convinced him to get some real, actual sleep, because he was in no condition to go anywhere any time soon; by the time he got him back into bed, with fresh sheets of fabric and covers, he learned his name too.

 

It was Hakyeon, and those two syllables awoke a dire sense of foreboding within Taekwoon, that he was, sadly, too busy to notice in time.

 

‘I see it now’ Bō mused, after Taekwoon retreated from the fire to the welcoming, smooth but not too warm coils of Bō’s embrace. ‘The pretty. It’s the eyes, isn’t it? They look like those gemstones, those real dark and shiny ones…’

‘Like onyx, yes…’ Taekwoon murmured, in the middle of a yawn, before he settled against the dragon’s hide and let sleep finally overtake him after long, long days.

 

Hakyeon would survive now.

 

~*~

 

Hakyeon did, indeed, survive, but mere hours into his recovery the next day, Taekwoon started to doubt that he was very enthusiastic about the fact, because once awake, the young human was anything but peaceful and quiet, which were the two qualities Taekwoon appreciated above anything in others.

 

On the contrary, Hakyeon was active and loud and curious, and while still quite weak and slightly feverish, nothing stopped him from pestering Taekwoon with questions.

 

‘How long have I been out?’ he asked, which, well, maybe, Taekwoon supposed, was a sensible thing to ask.

 

‘Where’s my boat?’ he kept on, and Taekwoon couldn’t but groan and gesture towards the sea, because, honestly, where the actual hell did he think it could’ve gone to?

 

‘Where are we? How far is the village? What exactly happened?’ Hakyeon continued, ‘Who are you? How long have you been hiding here? Do you ever leave this cave? It doesn’t look like you do much…’

 

And he was following Taekwoon around, and he kept on talking while Taekwoon changed his bandages, not at all bothered by the fact that his body was almost entirely covered with them, shedding the robe Taekwoon lent him like it was the most natural thing in the world to do… Which it was, in a way. Because Taekwoon had already been changing those exact same bandages for days, and because he’d seen his fair share of naked people, and because Hakyeon was nothing but a stupid human boy anyways.

 

A stupid, babbling, beautiful human boy, and Taekwoon couldn’t really help but notice all of that, now that he stopped worrying about whether or not he was going to make it.

He was going to make it, because the color was returning into his skin and he was sunkissed instead of greyish-pale, and his face was filling out until his cheekbones jutted high and proud instead of sharp and hollow, and his limbs were graceful and toned instead of limp and broken, and his lips were red as the setting sun painted atop the ocean - and his eyes, they kept on shining and haunting Taekwoon like that one stray, lost ray of sunshine venturing deeper underwater than all the others.

 

Hakyeon was beautiful and lively and recovering at a wonderful speed, and he was driving Taekwoon up the walls. Long gone was that sudden urge from the first night, the urge to protect and soothe him and make him unafraid. In fact, Taekwoon would’ve loved it if he showed just a little bit of healthy fright of him, but alas...

 

‘You’re not gonna talk to me, huh? Are all cavemen as boring as you?’ Hakyeon prodded even as he was slicing up some fish for dinner on the fourth day, and Taekwoon finally snapped. He jumped up and into the air in one swift motion, and turned his back to a gasping Hakyeon to plunge into the depths of the dark, murky water of the cave, swimming out and down towards the open sea as fast as he could.

He just really, really needed some peace and quiet, and really, really did not realize what a few hours of peace would cost him in the end.

 

He swam and swam, out and down and down under, until he couldn’t see anymore, until there were no more schools of curious fish, no more sound of the crashing waves, no more light infiltrating the perfect, soothing darkness and the endless pressure of the biggest imaginable body of water, embracing him like a gentle lover.

 

There, Taekwoon could finally exhale.

 

~*~

 

Back at the cave, however, absolute mayhem awaited Taekwoon. And he’d only been gone for a couple hours, too.

 

When he resurfaced from the pool, sighing deeply as the water ran all the way down his body in hundreds of tiny rivulets, he was greeted with a picture straight from his nightmares.

Bō appeared from the depths of the inner caves where Taekwoon bribe-exiled him, first to not terrify Hakyeon too much, then to… well, to prevent exactly this kind of situation, which mainly consisted in the dragon coiled up in a loose circle around the fire like a great big stupid betraying treasonous snake, and Hakyeon was sitting quite comfortably with his back against one of his forelegs, and they were talking, no, not simply talking, they were whispering and giggling with their foreheads leaning close.

 

 _‘Bōtāoxiōngyǒng!’_ Taekwoon groaned, trying to sound more angry than exasperated, if not for Bō’s sake, who could pretty much read his mind, then for Hakyeon’s. They had. A reputation. To uphold.

 

‘Yes, Taekwoon?’ purred the dragon, and Taekwoon cursed, long and eloquent, because he managed to go a whole four days without letting Hakyeon know his name, and he would’ve been perfectly content with staying ‘dragonboy’ and ‘hermit’ and ‘caveman’, even.

 

‘I’m gonna kill you, you oversized sea slug’ Taekwoon huffed in annoyance, shooting a murderous glare at the bane of his existence, who currently giggled sweetly at his outburst and stood up to scratch behind Bō’s hidden gills. Which was totally his favorite spot to be scratched. The dragon was lost, but so was Hakyeon, if Taekwoon had his way with him.

 

 _‘What are you so upset for?_ ’ murmured Bō’s voice deep in his head, and Taekwoon locked eyes with him and let his thoughts, thoughts that he’d been trying to lock away for days, find their way to the dragon.

Taekwoon showed him explicit and gruesome pictures, pictures of townsfolk and torches, of angry mobs, of fear turned rage, of the power of ignorance. Showed him the worst that humanity had to offer to everyone that wasn’t like them, that was somehow different.

And he knew that Bō understood, because he felt the gut-wrenching shudder that ran through the dragon’s soul, felt protectiveness and defiance roar up within his chest, felt his body go rigid and pull slightly away from Hakyeon.

 

_‘He’s different!’_

 

 _‘No, you’re different. And I am different. He’s just a human, like all the rest of them.’_ Taekwoon shook his head, and Bō seemed to consider his words, but he was too worked-up to step back now. Hakyeon had been driving him mad for days and now that they could finally get rid of him, Bō was just gonna take his side… Were there even sides here? Was there anything else than him and Bō, finally together without distraction again, back to their old, peaceful days of exploring and simply existing to the rhythm of the sea? _‘ And besides, how would you even know? What do you know about people, anyways?’_

 

 _‘You forget how long I’ve been here, Taekwoon. You forget all the years I had to wait, alone, for you. You’ve never had to be truly alone a day in your life, Taekwoon, because I’ve always been there for you!’_ Bō roared, his eyes flaring and his tail swatting at the pool with a loud and aggressive splash. _‘I’ve watched people for hundreds of years before you, just lonely, waiting, patient! Why can’t you trust me?’_

 

 _‘Oh I trust you, you idiot…’_ Taekwoon exhaled, forcing his own pulse to settle before the two of them accidentally flooded the cavern again. _‘I don’t trust him!’_

 

‘Why can’t you just give him a chance?’

Taekwoon didn’t even realize at first that Bō spoke out loud, not until Hakyeon jumped at his deep, rumbling voice.

 

Hakyeon, who heard nothing of their silent conversation so far, but somehow seemed to understand at least a sliver of it nonetheless.

Much, much later, Taekwoon would look back at this moment and wondered if this was the exact one he fell in love with him.

 

For now, though, all he noticed was how Hakyeon stood up, dusting off his borrowed pants with meticulous, small movements, and reached his hand out, palm up, to Bō first, then to Taekwoon, just like Taekwoon had done to him after he woke up.

 

Bō raised a mocking brow and sniffled, but still glanced at Taekwoon for reassurance before pressing his snout into Hakyeon’s hand.

 

Taekwoon stepped closer, too, and took Hakyeon’s hand with a loud sigh. It wasn’t his fault, really, that he’s always been wary of people, wasn’t his fault for what had happened to him, or to the few other dragons Taekwoon knew.

 

‘You’re terrifying, you know’ Hakyeon said, squeezing his hand reassuringly, before letting it drop lightly. ‘When you’re angry. Your eyes… it’s like they suddenly aren’t human anymore’

 

‘I’m not human anymore, either’ Taekwoon answered. Somewhere, unnoticed, their voices quieted down to whispers, and Taekwoon realized with a jolt that this was probably the first words Hakyeon said to him that didn’t annoy him to death.

‘Oh, I know that’ Hakyeon smiled, his eyes searching and curious and bottomless, and Taekwoon had to look away because they were sucking him in. ‘And yet…’

 

‘And yet?’

 

‘Oh, nevermind!’ Hakyeon shook his head, staring at him for a few more uncomfortable seconds, before laughing, short and sweet, and then taking a step back. Taekwoon felt like suddenly he could breathe again. ‘Listen, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me. Except the complete wall of silence, but Bō here is a great conversationalist, so I’m letting you off the hook. Anyways. I’m as good as I can get in a wet cave without sunshine or real dryness or, well, food that’s not fish and soup. So I think it’s time for me to go. Thank you, for everything, really’ Hakyeon continued, giving one last pat to Bō’s neck before hurrying off to the little alcove where he kept his handful of possessions, mostly his ruined clothes and a few sacks and tools hanging on a leather belt that Taekwoon discarded the first day and gave no thought to ever since.

 

‘You should, uh, you can keep the clothes, actually’ Taekwoon stuttered, when he saw Hakyeon reaching for the belt of his borrowed robe, and Hakyeon gave a surprised little laugh that sounded something like ‘oh?’, but thankfully, he left his clothes on.

 

‘Tide’s low enough now, but... I don’t suppose you keep a raft hidden around here somewhere?’ Hakyeon asked, looking around the cavern, as if he hadn’t just seen Taekwoon come and go through the pool. Taekwoon shook his head, and so did Bō, but his head-shaking was more of an excited shudder.

 

‘No, Bō, absolutely fucking not…’

 

‘Please?’ Taekwoon, please? Pretty please?’

Long gone was his frustration from earlier, and the dragon was practically begging now. It was entirely ridiculous, with his giant tail whipping whipping back and forth like some common dog, and his spikes digging holes into the cavern walls. He was too excited to calm down or listen to reason now.

Which, if Taekwoon would’ve stopped to think about it, meant that Taekwoon himself had to be at least a little bit excited, too.

 

‘What’s going on?’ Hakyeon asked, confused, and Taekwoon rolled his eyes because as much as he wished he could just keep arguing with his dragon in peace, of fucking course Hakyeon would have none of that. Of fucking course he just had to stick his nose into everything.

 

‘His dragonness, the wise and mighty Bōtāoxiōngyǒng would like us to personally take you back to shore’ Taekwoon raised his brows, looking at Bō expectantly for more explanation. If he wanted to go along with this madness, he could take care of it himself.

 

‘Bōtāo… you said that once, already, didn’t you?’

 

‘Well, it is my name!’ Bō cut in proudly, crouching down in front of Hakyeon like a cat would with a kitten. It was entirely not befitting of a dragon of Bō’s size and solemn, cobalt disposition, but Taekwoon supposed it did display the bipolarity of his true nature quite well. ‘He only says it when he’s angry with me, but it’s my full name! It’s because I am the Keeper of the Roaring Waves!’

 

‘I’d rather you’d be keeper of some brains…’ Taekwoon murmured under his breath, but the looks that Hakyeon and Bō shot him were just enough to take his leftover mood for talking away.

 

‘You see, we dragons  are all in charge of something, something great and important, something only we can keep safe…’ Bō went on, and Hakyeon, who was just about to leave not so long ago, stepped back to him and put a gentle hand by his ear as he listened to him talk. Taekwoon tuned them out in favor of looking around the cavern once more, pretending to check that there wasn’t anything Hakyeon was leaving behind - he’d rather forget him as soon as he was out. Or so he kept telling himself.

 

It wasn’t until he felt a playful nudge from Bō in the back of his brain that he turned his attention back to them, but by the time he picked up on what they were saying, Bō was already grinning his cheeky grin that never meant anything good.

 

‘So how long can you hold your breath?’ Bō asked with a knowing glint in his eyes, and Hakyeon’s brows ran up his forehead in confusion for just a blink.

 

‘Almost three minutes, actually’ he smirked proudly, and Taekwoon had to fight back an impressed nod, because that was definitely not something many humans could boast.

 

‘Three minutes! That’s a lot, isn’t it, Taekwoon?’ Bō exclaimed, to which Taekwoon could only roll his eyes. ‘I feel like that’s a lot, anyways. But…’ Bō continued, voice dropping low and conspiratory, his giant head moving closer and he beckoned Taekwoon with a wink of one great cobalt eye. ‘...but not nearly enough. What you need is the kiss of a water dragon!’

 

‘...the what now?’ Hakyeon blinked, glancing at Taekwoon as if he wasn’t sure he heard right. Taekwoon wasn’t very sure himself, either.

 

‘Why do you have to be so dramatic’ Taekwoon sighed.

 

‘You forget I see into your head’ Bō shot back, and nudged him playfully with an elbow. He was back to curling around both Hakyeon and Taekwoon now, his loud, rhythmic breathing enveloping them in a strange, quiet mood that seemed to stretch to infinity like the still mirror of a lake.

 

‘What’s going on?’ Hakyeon asked, a little quieter this time, like he was sensing the gravity of the moment as well.

 

‘It’s… it’s a gift we don’t easily give’ Taekwoon murmured, shooting one last, disapproving glance at Bō, before he reluctantly met Hakyeon’s searching eyes. ‘The kiss. But well, Bō is probably right. It’d be easier to get you back that way…’

 

‘An actual kiss, yeah?’ Hakyeon nodded, pensive, before he smiled an incredibly soft smile and took a step towards Taekwoon. ‘Alright.’

 

Hakyeon exhaled, his eyes round and his face glowing, and for a moment, Taekwoon stopped breathing in panic. But then he heard Bō giggle in his mind, and the dragon pushed his head closer, nudging Taekwoon’s shoulder playfully.

Taekwoon watched as Hakyeon blinked a few times, as if coming out of a trance, and then turned to Bō; he watched Bō closing his eyes and then looking up, with softly burning, familiar magic in them, watched as Hakyeon stepped up and cradled Bō’s enormous, spiky, blue head into his gentle palms, watched as they inhaled in unison and then pressed their faces softly against each other, tiny nose to scaly muzzle, dainty forehead to bridge of wide nose.

 

Taekwoon’s heart was beating so fast he could feel it thrumming in his every bone.

 

But it wasn’t just his heartbeat, it was Bō’s, too, and their magic pulsed to the beat of it.

It only lasted a few seconds, and when Hakyeon pulled away, Taekwoon saw a flicker of blue in his black eyes, before Taekwoon swiftly grabbed his hand, again, and before he could change his mind, he pulled him down into the water.

 

To his credit (he kept surprising Taekwoon all the time), Hakyeon only mildly panicked as his body hit the cold water and the sea rushed to close ranks above him. He didn’t start flailing his limbs around, didn’t inhale the water, but opened his eyes and immediately tried to kick himself upwards to the surface. But Taekwoon held him strong, grabbed his neck and pulled his face closer to show him.

Except when he came face-to-face with the image of Hakyeon’s dark hair flowing around his face like silk, his gaze burning and bubbles adorning his every feature like tiny pearls, he almost forgot what he was even doing in the first place. It was only the honest fear in Hakyeon’s eyes (something he’s been wishing for for days but now that he had it, he realized he didn’t care for it anymore) that jolted him out of his reverie, and he finally reached out to run a careful finger down Hakyeon’s nose and mouth.

Then, watching his reaction carefully, he inhaled, letting the water fill his lungs, and held Hakyeon close until he stopped shaking his head and hitting at his chest and very, very cautiously, opened his mouth to do the same.

 

The change was instantaneous - Hakyeon’s face lit up like a thousand fireworks, and he went still, bringing his hands up to his own face. He was grinning and saying something, but the water was distorting his voice too much so Taekwoon couldn’t hear a word - and Bō chose this exact moment to stir up the entire pool by sliding into the water himself.

 

 _‘Let’s take him to the jellyfish!’_ Bō exclaimed, voice high and shrill in Taekwoon’s head, and he shot a warning glance at him. Beside him, Hakyeon was still coming to terms with being able to breathe underwater, which consisted of him swimming in loops and most likely laughing, and touching his own face and neck in disbelief.

 

 _‘No, no, we’re not doing that. We’re just taking him to the shore. Underwater. So nobody sees us. That’s all we’re doing, Bō!’_ Taekwoon warned, but all Bō did was sending a whole jumble of mocking-happy emotions his way before he turned on his back and swam underneath Hakyeon.

 

The boy immediately floated above him, aligning his body with the practiced ease of a lifetime swimmer, and touched first Bō’s mouth, then his own lips in a silent question.

 

The kiss of a water dragon. The gift that allowed even a human to go into the water without the need for air.

 

 _‘You could’ve kissed him too, you know’_ Bō giggled inside Taekwoon’s head, and Taekwoon kicked him for good measure, before pushing his side to get him to turn back upright, and then pulling Hakyeon behind one of Bō’s great, wavy horns.

 

‘Hold on tight’ he said, even though his speaking voice was just as distorted as Hakyeon’s, but the boy seemed to understand, tightening his grip and letting Bō to swim them out, towards the open sea.

 

They didn’t take him to the jellyfish, nor the sparkly cave, much to Bō’s dismay, but they did meet some dolphins on the way, and Bō was content with swimming alongside them for Hakyeon’s amusement instead of chasing them for a change.

When the dolphins jumped, they jumped too, Bō’s slender but colossal body breaking the surface of the water with a graceful ease, and as the water exploded around them, so did Hakyeon’s laugh.

After long minutes spent in the peaceful hum of underwater, his voice and the dolphins’ playful chirping melted together into a high-pitched, yet enchanting melody that Taekwoon secretly found beautiful.

 

Not too long after, they finally reached shore, and making sure they wouldn’t be noticed, climbed out onto the rocky sand, Hakyeon stood before them, his arms spread in a grand gesture, as wide as his grin.

 

‘Well?’ he asked, and Taekwoon raised an unimpressed brow.

‘If you think I’m gonna waste my energy on drying you then you’re dumber than you look’ he scoffed, but all Hakyeon did was turn his smile down a notch, to something softer. And darker. More dangerous.

 

‘I look dumb, do I?’ he asked, stepping up to Taekwoon. Seawater was lazily dripping from his hair down his temples, collecting on his dark, thick brows and above the bow of his mouth, and he wasn’t simply looking at Taekwoon - he was watching him, closely, his curiosity making the hairs on the back of Taekwoon’s neck stand with wary.

 

‘You certainly are, if you think you can just play with magic like that’ Taekwoon cleared his throat, breaking eye-contact. Hakyeon made a very quiet, very content little sound in the back of his throat.

 

‘Oh but I’m good at playing with things that shouldn’t be played with…’ He said, giving Taekwoon a last, dark and unreadable glance, before he patted Bō’s neck, said an unfittingly cheerful thanks to him, and sauntered away.

 

Bō and Taekwoon stayed, frozen on the spot, and watched him go, his wet clothes clinging to his body, sand sticking to his bare feet, the late afternoon light catching in his wet hair, and they wondered what exactly that could’ve meant.

They did not have to wonder for long.

 

~*~

 

The thing about Hakyeon was, as Taekwoon realized, albeit too late, that he was relentless. Possibly the most relentless human he’d ever had the (dis)pleasure of meeting.

 

The moon hadn’t even grown full again, before Hakyeon was back at their cave.

Bō heard him coming first, but since he’s misplaced all his brains at possibly a very tender age, or so Taekwoon suspected sometimes, he didn’t feel it important to mention that someone was coming. Not until Taekwoon heard it too, the quiet splashing in the pool as a body moved swiftly underneath the surface, not until the water rippled and Hakyeon came up with a loud gasp for air, grinning contently even as Taekwoon jumped to his feet in shock.

 

‘I could drown you in a heartbeat’ Taekwoon growled, sending a furious look towards Bō lazing around at the edge of the pool, with his tail in the water and his eyes following the small, reflected lights dancing around on the cave walls. ‘Maybe I could try and drown you, too.’

 

‘Okay, can you drown me on the shore?’ Hakyeon asked, his head bobbing slightly up and down with the lazy movements of his feet that were keeping him afloat.

 

‘Absolutely’ Taekwoon warned, without much success.

 

‘Wonderful, then, no need for me to wait in here’ Hakyeon clicked with his tongue, before climbing out of the water.

 

‘Hakyeon!!’ Bō exclaimed, ignoring Taekwoon’s repeated begging to show some restraint, and slithered closer to greet the boy, turning his ear to him for some pats and scratches. Taekwoon was seeing red - but at the same time, Bō was rumbling, content and inaudibly low from deep within his belly, and his eyes were sparkling, and he was just so genuinely happy to see Hakyeon that Taekwoon couldn’t find it in himself to kick him out right away.

 

Instead, he stood to the back and watched as Hakyeon nuzzled against Bō’s head with a laugh, before plucking a small bag from his belt. He crouched down in front of Bō, and poured its contents into the palm of his hand, a small, but impressive pile of dully shining white pearls.

 

‘Treasure!’ Bō exclaimed, splashing with his tail, and Hakyeon laughed, their noise echoing from the cave walls. ‘Is it mine?’

 

‘Yes, yes, it’s yours. You lent me your treasures the last time, didn’t you? I wanted to thank you. I picked them myself, all the prettiest ones…’

 

And as Taekwoon watched pure joy bloom in Bō’s eyes, he felt some of his reluctance slowly melting away. Hakyeon wasn’t afraid of Bō, or Taekwoon, for that instance, but he was open and curious, and clearly mesmerized, and he managed to bribe the dragon on the first try. He was trying, though Taekwoon could not fathom why, but he seemed determined to get on their good side somehow.

 

‘Because you saved my life’ Hakyeon later said, rolling his eyes like he couldn’t believe the question. ‘This is the least I owe you both…’

 

And he reached into his pouch and pulled out one last pearl. It was bigger, its shape wobbly, its color a deep, smoky blue. He held it out on his palm towards Taekwoon, and when he didn’t reach for it, Hakyeon took his hand and placed the pearl in it gently.

 

‘This one’s yours... ‘ he said, closing Taekwoon’s fingers around it. ‘Thank you, Taekwoon. For keeping me alive.’

 

‘Where did you even get these?’ Taekwoon asked, swallowing a hundred other questions on the tip of his tongue.

 

‘I picked them!’ Hakyeon smiled, shrugging his narrow shoulders. A small shudder ran through his body in the cooling evening air, and Taekwoon sighed, before pulling the water from his clothes, because there was no way in hell he was gonna nurse Hakyeon back to health again. ‘I’m a pearl diver…’ he continued, plopping down on Taekwoon’s bench like he was at home, and patting the seat next to himself. ‘Our village is just down the coast, two bays over, actually… I’d have never thought there would be a dragon living this close by to us.’

 

‘I know the village.’

 

‘Well, you don’t sound too enthusiastic about being neighbours…’

 

‘I’m not’ Taekwoon nodded, biting back a small smile at Hakyeon’s frown. ‘But your village is small enough, and we like this cave, so we deal with you lot…’

 

‘That’s nice’ Hakyeon stuck his tongue out. ‘Why live in a cave, though?’

 

‘Bō’s way too big to stray far from the ocean’ Taekwoon shrugged, motioning towards the dragon with his head. Bō was still playing with his new pearls, encasing them in little bubbles of water and floating them above his slowly swaying, giant head with great precision.

‘We are too old to live inland, too, I guess’ he added after a beat, not really knowing where this sudden openness was coming from. But something in the soft curve of Hakyeon’s eyes and the quiet, hypnotic rhythm of his breathing kept prompting him to speak.

 

‘Why, how old are you?’

 

‘I could be your great-granddad’ Taekwoon grinned, laughing at the shock on Hakyeon’s face. ‘Our life-force comes from the ocean. We could… move away, could hide in the mountains, or something, but we wouldn’t like it there…’

‘What, so you shrivel up and dry out like a jellyfish?’ Hakyeon laughed, nudging Taekwoon’s shoulder playfully, to which he was rewarded with a very cold, very disapproving glare that he entirely ignored.

 

‘No, we wouldn’t shrivel up and dry out’ he said, rolling his eyes, but the honest curiosity in Hakyeon’s eyes kept him talking. The boy was drinking in his words, like a sponge, and Taekwoon was flabbergasted to find that as unusual and weird as being the center of someone’s attention was, he maybe, kind of, perhaps liked it. ‘But our soul would. We’d become shadows of ourselves… You can put both a fish or a shark in a tank, but it won’t be real life for the shark.’

 

‘So you’re a shark, then?’ Hakyeon teased, and Taekwoon let just the tiniest spark of magic ignite in his eye as he stared the boy down, his voice dropping to a whisper.

 

‘I’m so much more dangerous than a shark.’

 

There was a long stretch of frozen silence, the air almost cracking with a sudden tension, and Taekwoon felt it run all the way down his body, gripping his guts in a warm, throbbing fist for a second.

This time, it was Hakyeon who looked away first with a small gulp that he tried to hide in a cough.

 

‘That, you are’ he muttered, half to himself, before springing to his feet and abandoning Taekwoon on the bench to join Bō by the pool and poke at his bubbles.

 

It took Taekwoon minutes of absent-minded staring at the two of them to realize that this was probably the longest conversation they’d had so far. And that he didn’t hate it at all.

 

Against his constant protests and better judgement, Hakyeon kept returning to visit after that day, too.

At first, he’d have excuses prepared, if they were a bit transparent, but he dropped even that after a while. He’d grown on them, Taekwoon guessed, or certainly on Bō, at least, who seemed infatuated with the young human and his loudness and his silly stories and high-pitched laugh. So infatuated, in fact, that he managed to beg Taekwoon into taking Hakyeon to Bō’s favorite swarm of tiny, rainbow jellyfish that he liked to swirl around in lazy, dizzying circles as the two of them floated in the middle, suspended in the clear, open blue of the water, rays of sunshine like a myriad arrows all around them, flecks of dirt glittering everywhere as the jellyfish went round and round and round.

 

They swam with the dolphins and showed him the best shipwrecks and Bō tried to catch some whales to show off but the whales just mocked him as usual.

 

Hakyeon, in turn, took them to his favorite spots up the cliffs where the seagulls nested, and from where you could see not only the endless stretch of the ocean right under your feet, but also, as the night descended and the stars came out, the countless flickers of fires from all the tiny fishing villages, all along the coastline and right down to the delta of the South River.

 

‘You could come visit me in the village too, you know’ Hakyeon mused one evening, as they sat atop the great black cliff, their feet dangling above the daunting heights. Taekwoon, of course, wasn’t afraid - it’d been some time since he flew, but he could feel the buzzing power of the air, waiting to be woken just under his skin. But Hakyeon couldn’t, yet he was just sitting there, leaning back on his hands, eyes lazily roaming the never-ending waves. Every once in a while, they saw the glistening spikes of Bō’s back, gently emerging from the water as he swam in perfect, mesmerizing loops down in the bay.

 

‘Why would I do that?’

 

‘I dunno, because… we’re friends?’

 

‘No we’re not.’ Taekwoon scoffed, and Hakyeon shot him a dirty look, but didn’t seem too affronted. He also did not say anything else for a while, closing his eyes and turning his face to the quickly cooling sea breeze, letting Taekwoon enjoy the quiet.

 

‘You could slip and fall to death, you know’ Taekwoon finally said, surprising himself when his tongue moved on its own and broke the silence. ‘How are you not afraid?’

 

‘Oh, I am. Terrified of heights, actually.’ Hakyeon shrugged. When he looked at Taekwoon, his pupils were blown wide in the gently settling semi-dark, making his eyes look like the pearl he’d given Taekwoon. ‘That’s the whole point… Nothing makes you feel quite as alive as being afraid… And you?’

 

‘Me what?’

 

‘Why are you afraid? Of making friends?’

 

‘I have friends. Two, actually.’

 

‘Oh, and, where are they? How come I’ve never heard of them?’

 

‘They... don’t live very close by’ Taekwoon admitted, taking a moment to remember when was the last time he’d seen Sunggyu and Xia. It must’ve been years, now.

Again, Hakyeon fell silent for a while.

 

‘Come to the village, Taekwoon. Meet some people, they’re very nice, I promise. I know a few grannies who’d just eat your sulky face up…’

 

‘No, thanks’ Taekwoon scoffed, biting his cheek before he could continue. Hakyeon was already one person too many that knew of him. But then Hakyeon turned to him, with his head cocked curiously to the side, and his eyes searching, scorching, seeing way too deep.

 

‘Why do you have to hate people so much?’ he asked, quieter this time, all teasing gone from his voice. It was soft and careful - it was pitying, and Taekwoon’s heart burst with a sudden, white-hot rage.

 

‘Because people are monsters’ he spat, right into Hakyeon’s face. The boy blinked, but didn’t flinch, staring into Taekwoon’s angry eyes. Determined. Righteous. Relentless. So-so painfully human.

 

‘Am I a monster to you, then?’ he whispered, and Taekwoon wanted to say yes, wanted to agree so much words were bubbling up in his throat, but then he looked into Hakyeon’s eyes and swallowed them right back.

 

‘Sometimes… sometimes I still wonder if you really aren’t’ he sighed, and Hakyeon regarded him unmoving for a few more breaths, before a very tender smile slowly lit up his face.

 

Taekwoon tore his eyes away, stood up, and stepped off the cliff.

 

The fall knocked the air right out of his lungs and he almost laughed with the brief rush of adrenaline, before slowing his descent and slowly rising up to the edge to stop in front of Hakyeon.

 

‘And me? ……..Am I a monster to you?’ he asked, his senses heightened with the buzz of magic in his blood and Hakyeon’s gaze burning across his skin.

 

‘Maybe’ the boy said, standing up to face him. ‘But I’m not afraid of you.’

The toes of his shoes reached over the cliff, and his knees were slightly shaking from vertigo.

Taekwoon raised a questioning brow at that, but reached out towards Hakyeon in invitation.

He did not know what he really expected, didn’t know where the idea even came from, but what he did not expect at all was for Hakyeon to actually grab his hand, take a deep breath, close his eyes, and step forward.

 

Taekwoon caught him by the waist before he could stumble, and Hakyeon immediately grabbed onto his shoulders. His grip was iron and his body was shaking - and light, so much lighter than Taekwoon expected - but still, he kept smiling that smug smile.

He let them down slowly into the soft sand of the beach, and Hakyeon didn’t let go for a while even after his feet touched the ground.

 

‘I’ll collapse if you don’t hold me up’ he said, staring up at the cliff and shaking his head in disbelief. And then he threw his head back, cold sweat glistening on the skin of his long, long neck, and laughed and laughed and laughed, and his laugh was echoing amongst the enormous black rocks, and his heart kept beating so fast Taekwoon could feel it against his own chest.

 

‘See?’ he winked, once he finally stopped laughing and looked back at Taekwoon. ‘Sometimes we just have to face whatever makes us afraid.’

 

And Taekwoon found no words in himself to answer to that.

 

‘Come to the far edge of the village bay, next full moon’ Hakyeon said, once he let go to stand on his own feet. ‘Come just after sunset. I won’t make you meet anyone, I promise. Just… don’t forget to come. The both of you.’

He waited until Taekwoon forced an unsure nod out of himself, then waved good-bye and walked away, leaving Taekwoon on the shore with nothing but a growing sense of dread in the pit of his stomach, the burning indents of his hands on Taekwoon’s shoulders, and the ghost of his breath across his face.

 

~*~

 

He’d debated with himself, and with Bō, for days, but in the end, he decided to go.

The sun was beginning to set when they left the cave, painting the sea the color of almost-blood, and they had to resist the urge to swim above water and splash around the reds and golds of the surface.

The light was gone by the time they reached the cliff which hid them from Hakyeon’s village, but Taekwoon could feel the hustle and bustle of life just behind the dusky rocks, could smell bonfires and food, could hear music and chatter. So many people, so much noise…

 

Hakyeon was waiting for them, clad in a deep blue robe of silk, his lips and hands painted, his feet bare, and a curious, small object in his hands. It was fashioned out of driftwood and shells, adorned with shiny rocks and crushed mother-of-pearl and flowers, and a candle was lit in the middle of it, its tiny, orange flame casting long shadows on Hakyeon’s face as it danced in the gentle night breeze.

 

‘Here, this is yours’ Hakyeon greeted them, holding it out to Taekwoon.

 

‘What is it?’ Taekwoon asked, mostly curious, but also wary. Hakyeon seemed… different, somehow. Like he wasn’t himself - or like after a long time, finally he really was.

 

‘A tribute’ Hakyeon smiled. Moonlight was shattering into a myriad of tiny flames on the surface of the shining mother-of-pearls, and they all seemed to be drawn to his face. ‘There is a great festival, and we send them out onto the sea, this time, every year. To the sea gods.’

 

‘I’m not a god’ Taekwoon whispered, shaking his head. Just like all those weeks ago in the cave, Hakyeon took his fingers and wrapped them around the gift, which Taekwoon recognized now as a float, one that people liked to send out to the sea for their human-ceremonies.

 

Hakyeon’s eyes were endless pools of darkness with the reflection of the candlelight dancing in the depths of them.

 

‘What makes a god, if not the prayer?’ he said, and goosebumps erupted all across Taekwoon’s skin from where their hands were touching.

 

‘You don’t pray to us’

 

‘What makes you so certain?’ Hakyeon asked with another smile playing at the corner of his lips. The sleeve of his robe touched Taekwoon’s hand and he almost recoiled at how cold yet soft it felt.

 

‘There is a shrine in the village’ Hakyeon continued, letting go of the float but keeping one of Taekwoon’s hands in his own as he started walking down the beach. ‘A small shrine, and very old, but we keep it neat. Nobody even remembers who built it, or when… and it’s got these amazingly detailed, beautiful paintings, from floor to ceiling and even above head, on the inside.’ They reached the edge of the sea where the cliff was touching the water, and behind where Bō was waiting for them, peeking out from the water curiously. Taekwoon could feel his excitement at seeing Hakyeon buzzing in his veins, could feel his thoughts of happiness and impatience - and his smugness when he saw their hands, clasped together. Still, he couldn’t let go.

 

‘All of them are of dragons.’ Hakyeon finished, with a conspiratory tint to his voice, like he was sharing a secret - a secret that Taekwoon still wasn’t sure he wanted, or rather, if he was quite ready to hear.

 

‘Why are you telling me this?’ he asked, hating how confused he sounded, but as he was looking at Hakyeon with his black hair and red lips and shimmery clothes and knowing eyes, he really couldn’t pick out a single one of all those thoughts racing around in his head like a school of spooked fish.

 

‘Because dragons and people aren’t meant to be two worlds, but one.’ Hakyeon answered, before dropping Taekwoon’s hand to kneel down in the sand. ‘Now come on, let’s send out this thing into the sea.’

 

Bō came out into the shallows to watch them, his head following the gently bobbling movement of the flame as it floated atop the small waves. He started to hum, then, a quiet, low, old melody, and as Taekwoon watched the float dancing, mesmerized, and let the steady charm of Bō’s voice fill his heart, he slowly joined in too.

They sang an ancient song of a boat made of feathers, of aimless drifting and good-byes, and when Taekwoon opened his eyes to look up, he saw tears glistening in Hakyeon’s eyes.

They sang until the float was barely a speck of light on the horizon, and then Hakyeon stood up, dusting off the sand from his festival robes, and pulled Taekwoon to his feet.

 

‘Kiss me, Taekwoon’ Hakyeon said, then, and Taekwoon had to shake his head because suddenly it felt like his ears were full of water and he wasn’t hearing right.

‘... what?’ he gaped, his feet frozen to the ground, his eyes searching Hakyeon’s face suspiciously, but the boy just stood there, smiling, the memory of tears in his eyes making his face shine even brighter than usual. Or maybe it was the knowing smile playing on his lips. Or maybe it was magic.

 

‘I want to show you something. So, kiss me.’

 

And Taekwoon would furiously deny it later, but in that moment, his heart definitely skipped a beat as he raised a wavering hand up to Hakyeon’s face, realizing mid-movement that his body was acting on its own again, realizing mid-lean that he was holding his breath, realizing just before his lips touched Hakyeon that he’d been waiting for this for far longer than he’d ever care to admit.

Then their lips were touching and Hakyeon exhaled against his mouth and Taekwoon’s eyes fell shut. They felt like velvet, Hakyeon’s lips, and they tasted like saltwater and bonfire smoke and wine and secret dreams, and then Hakyeon raised his hands to put them softly around Taekwoon’s shoulders and his head tilted to the side, just a little, and the universe suddenly exploded in Taekwoon’s chest.

He’d never known what drowning could feel like, but in that moment, he was drowning, in Hakyeon’s taste and smell and his lips, moving just the gentlest bit against Taekwoon’s mouth, closing out the rest of the world, enveloping everything but the single point of Hakyeon’s existence in impenetrable darkness.

It was terrifying.

It was miraculous.

 

‘Well that was something’ Hakyeon breathed, taking a moment longer with his nose touching Taekwoon’s and his eyes still closed, after they pulled apart. Taekwoon was still holding his face in his hands, but he dropped them, confused, once Hakyeon looked up at him. ‘I only meant for you to save my breath… Instead, you took it away…’

 

‘Right, right, I’m…’ Taekwoon spluttered, his face burning up with embarrassment, and moved to step away (to dive headfirst into the sea, to swim to the bottom of it and possibly never emerge for the next hundred years or so). But Hakyeon held onto his shoulders, and rolled his eyes and smiled.

 

‘You’re stupid is what you are, but don’t you dare say sorry after a kiss like that, because immortal or not I will personally kill you!’

 

‘What do you mean, like that…’

 

‘Oh, I think you know’ Hakyeon giggled, barely audible, and his hands left storms in their wake as they ran down Taekwoon’s arms, all the way to his wrists and then his hands. ‘In fact, I think you’ve secretly been wanting this for a while… gods know I have’ he winked, and Taekwoon couldn’t fathom how he could be saying things like that with such carefree ease, when he could barely lift his gaze to look Hakyeon in the eyes.

‘But more on that later. I actually have something I want you both to see, and we have to stay under to see it, so…’ and this time, it was him who moved, pulling Taekwoon in by his hands, pressing his warm mouth against the surprised curve of Taekwoon’s lips.

And Taekwoon was having a really hard time concentrating, what with Hakyeon’s tongue playfully nudging at his bottom lip, with his lean, warm body pressing against his and his scent coming off of him in strong waves to make Taekwoon dizzy. Something electric stirred within him, and Taekwoon took moments to realize that it was the dragon, his power awakening, his magic rushing to the surface through their heated kiss.

Taekwoon combed his fingers through Hakyeon’s hair and down the nape of his neck, and his breath was escaping him through his open mouth and into Hakyeon’s lungs, filling him with just a hint of magic and possibility and the favor of the oceans.

He would need no air to breathe for a while now.

 

Taekwoon could hear Bō chuckle softly, but it wasn’t a teasing sort of chuckle, it was more of a relieved one, a sound of held-back air finally escaping, of tension slowly dissipating. Once again, Taekwoon had to realize that Bō was as much a part of him as he was Bō’s, and that the dragon’s unease in the past few days may have had something to do with his own confusion, his own unrealized tension about Hakyeon that seemed to be bleeding out of him through every single point they were touching now.

 

Then Hakyeon stepped away, reluctantly letting go of Taekwoon’s hand, and Taekwoon just watched him stand there, the pale moonlight enveloping his ethereal form, and realized, very-very late, that he never wanted to stop touching him again.

Hakyeon’s eyes mirrored the same sentiment right back at him, and he reached for his belt, undoing it gently and deliberately, and Taekwoon nearly choked on his tongue.

Hakyeon took off his robe, and he was wearing thin, black pants and nothing else underneath. They hugged his waist high and billowed gently around his legs, and Taekwoon had seen them, had seen him before, but never did he quite realize just how long those legs were.

The smooth silk fell from Hakyeon’s shoulders without a sound, gathering around his elbows, and Taekwoon watched, mesmerized, as he shook the material off, gathered it and folded it gently into a neat pile, placing it atop a bigger, drier rock.

 

He was an idol, an altar to worship, carved out of moonlight, elected in the sand.

 

‘Can’t swim a minute in the damned thing’ he complained, turning back to look at Taekwoon with a playful glint in his eyes, and then he strode into the sea without further comment, leaving Taekwoon, lost for words, on the shore.

Bō waddled out to greet him all the way to knee-deep water, splashing around Hakyeon enthusiastically, and he had to turn back and scoff at Taekwoon for him to finally move.

He reached them just before they went under, and he was glad he did, because it wasn’t the first time Hakyeon tried breathing underwater by far, but the utter joy lighting his face up on the first intake was something Taekwoon didn’t want to miss.

 

They swam together, alongside Bō’s sleek, gently shifting body, Hakyeon outspacing them every once in a while to nudge them in the right direction and soon they were clear of the bay and out in the open sea, the black water gently swooshing above their heads, and their hands firmly clasped together.

Then, Hakyeon suddenly stopped, in the middle of pretty much nowhere, and turned onto his back, floating unmoving a few meters below the surface, and when Taekwoon shook his head in confusion, he motioned for him to follow his example.

So Taekwoon did - and the moment he looked upwards, his mouth fell open and his heart swelled with the sight of the starry night sky suddenly descending onto a small patch of the warm summer sea.

Floats, not unlike the one Hakyeon gave him, were drifting atop the sea, hundreds of them - and they saw because their bellies were delicate seashells and the light of the candles shone through, seeping a warm and strange and otherworldly light into the water.

 

They stayed there like that for a while, Bō swimming underneath them to hold them up on his back, hands interlocked, eyes starry, hearts wide open.

 

When the floats eventually scattered and their lights died out, Hakyeon swam up to the surface and Taekwoon after him. The air was getting cooler but Taekwoon’s veins throbbed with fire when they kissed again, at the gently rocking center of the universe, suspended between the voids of the night sky and the open sea.

 

That night, they didn’t go back to the cave or the village. Instead, they chased each other in the silky dark, and even though Taekwoon could tell that the primordial, human fear of the darkness, the unknown, the silent sea was spooking Hakyeon every once in a while, he held onto Taekwoon tight and fought it until his head was empty again, his lungs full of water and his mouth filled with magic.

They swam all the way out to the small scattering of islands where the water glowed inside the high caverns in the pitch-dark. Taekwoon sent lights up to the ceiling, tiny flickering flames in blue and gold, just bright enough for Hakyeon to barely see, and they splashed around for a while, quiet laughs echoing, mesmerized by the movements of their limbs lighting up the black water.

 

‘It’s this rare algae’ Taekwoon whispered, lifting up a handful of water and watching it trickle down between his fingers like liquid moonlight.

 

‘It’s magic’ Hakyeon shook his head, lifting up a handful of water and pouring it over Taekwoon gently, watching as it ran down, drop by glowing drop, on Taekwoon’s face. Then, he traced their tracks with a fingertip.

 

‘You’re magic’ he whispered, close, so close. And this wasn’t a question, wasn’t a taunt, but Taekwoon’s magic still stirred inside him, and he saw the reflection of his own eyes burning, in Hakyeon’s dark pupils.

 

‘I wonder if you aren’t, a little bit, too’

 

‘Hush’ Hakyeon smiled, soft and fascinated. ‘I’m trying to…’

 

‘Trying to what?’ Taekwoon smiled himself, pulling Hakyeon close by his hips. His skin was too cold to the touch, so Taekwoon willed the water to warm around him.

 

‘To understand how this can be real… how you’re real…’

 

‘I’m as real as this cave’ Taekwoon answered, stilling to let Hakyeon trace the tracks of another droplet as it fell from his eyelashes and sneaked down his cheek, his chin, his collarbone.

 

‘This cave is the most beautiful, breathtaking, unreal thing I’ve ever seen’ Hakyeon nodded, and then he leaned in to trace the same pattern over with his lips.

 

They crossed the cavern and swam underneath the rocks to emerge onto the shores of a small inner bay. The shore was wet and muddy here, but Taekwoon was out first and managed to dry up a patch of sand, just in time to turn around and see Hakyeon emerge from the sea.

 

He had compared Hakyeon once to all the other humans, but in that moment, he saw the truth: that Hakyeon wasn’t anyone like Taekwoon had seen before.

 

As his slender frame broke the surface of the water, he reminded Taekwoon not of a human boy, but of a merman prince - he’d only ever met merpeople once, and was barely lucky enough to live to tell the tale, but in that moment, that’s what Hakyeon reminded him of - ethereal, out-of-his-time, untouchable, deadly beautiful.

The kind of beauty that was so raw it had to be kept a secret, the kind of untouchable that haunted your dreams with almosts and what-ifs.

 

So Taekwoon took a deep, shaking breath and touched him, his hands quiet acts of worship as they draw the silhouette of Hakyeon’s slender body, over and over and over again.

 

Their bodies left prints all over the sand, and the sea took great care to keep their echoes undisturbed for a long, long time.

 

““““““““““***”””””””””””

 

At first, there was water.

 

Then there was light.

_(They tried to take it away once, his light.)_

 

For more than a century, Taekwoon and Bō steered clear of people, because he’d known them once.

He’d seen them and learnt them and grew to hate them and they hated him right back, and everything was as meant to be.

Then Hakyeon came along.

Hakyeon came and he taught them the shades of grey between black and white, taught them empathy and taught them to listen, taught them the wonders of the million nuances of human nature.

Hakyeon dragged them along to his village, eventually, introduced Taekwoon to people and watched him warm up to them with a steadying hand on the small of his back. Their sheer numbers made Taekwoon uneasy at first, all that commotion, all that noise, nothing but bad memories - but Hakyeon asked, so Taekwoon learned to make new ones.

 

He liked the children best. They were small and vicious and fearless, loud and carefree in the way dolphins and young dragonlings were. They gathered around him and picked at his clothes and let him lift them up and begged him for magic tricks. They climbed Bō’s great, scaly body and used it as a slide, fed him with fruits and treats and laughed and screamed when he sprayed water at them in the shallows of the bay.

They were too pure, too young to be people yet, but as Taekwoon watched them grow over the months and years, a fragile, bright hope blossomed in his chest, a hope that maybe they could grow into people and still stay the same, like Hakyeon did.

 

Watching Hakyeon amongst his family, his friends, his village, Taekwoon reluctantly but surely realized that maybe he hadn’t been quite right all along.

Because Hakyeon was as human as they came - he was loud, when he laughed and when he teased and when he cursed; he was annoying when he nagged and when he wanted something Taekwoon didn’t; he was sudden and fickle and acted like he knew everything.

But he was also quiet, quiet when he pondered and when he smiled his secret smile and when he kissed; he was kind when he embraced and consoled and pulled everyone to him, kind but firm as he guided Taekwoon through the sea of people, many of whom regarded Taekwoon with fear and distrust at the start.

He was wild and silly and insufferable. He was regal and graceful in his every move. He was the gentle first rays of the sun peeking over the horizon and painting the world in all the colors of a dream. He was a sudden, great thunderstorm and Taekwoon and Bō helpless specks of dust tumbling at the mercy of his towering waves.

They’d lost their way before, shut away from a whole world buzzing with life, safe but alone in the dark, and then once again in the depths of Hakyeon’s eyes. But Hakyeon, he guided them back home every time.

But in the end, it all was for naught, because eventually Taekwoon turned out to be right.

 

Everything started with the oysters and fish disappearing. There were many pearl-divers in Hakyeon’s village, and in most small fishing villages down the coast, but the oysters were having one bad year after the other and the fishing boats returned with less and less in their nets.

Taekwoon knew that they’d come back, just like the fish, because the balance of sea-life may have seemed precarious to humans but not to a dragon. They’d recover eventually, and the nets would be full again, but the village, it seemed, didn’t have the kind of time that he did.

And so they despaired and so they went to their shrines and prayed to the sea gods for a bountiful ocean.

And so Hakyeon brought Taekwoon to the smallest, the oldest shrine, the one with the dragons, and he pulled him down onto his knees next to Hakyeon, and looked at the ceiling, at the chipped-away fresco of the great Elder Dragons chasing each other amongst blue waves and prayed.

Afterwards, they walked down the beach and swam all the way out to the cave and sat in the darkness, staring at the water in silence for a long time.

 

Finally, Hakyeon looked up, letting out a small, defeated sigh and turned his head.

 

‘Help us, Taekwoon.’

 

‘I can’t bring your harvest back I’m… my magic doesn’t work like that, Hakyeon. I don’t… control the fish. I can’t make oysters grow more pearls’ Taekwoon said, shaking his head and casting his eyes down, because as ridiculous as that sounded, he kind of wished he did. Anything to ease the worried wrinkles between Hakyeon’s brows.

 

‘I know but… there’s gotta be something you can do? Something we can do? Someone, something… I can’t sit by and watch my village starve. Not after everything you’ve shown me…’ he chuckled, dark and unamused. His eyes sought out Bō’s slumbering form in the semi-darkness, but he addressed his words to Taekwoon still.

‘You’ve ruined me forever, haven’t you, dragon? Now that I know you, now that I’ve seen your miracles, now that you’ve made my life magic, I can’t go back and live in a world where some things just aren’t possible…’

 

His eyes were cold and desperate and full of pain, and Taekwoon felt panic stir in his chest.

Then, Hakyeon looked up at him and his gaze softened, and he brought Taekwoon’s hands to his mouth and kissed his palms, chuckling as Taekwoon’s eyes sparkled.

 

‘I wouldn’t want to, Taekwoon. Go back to a world without you. Look at me, you’ve given me everything, and still I ask for more…’

 

The words died on Taekwoon’s tongue, steeling themselves and recoiling in the last moment.

Suddenly, a deep, yet soft rumble shook the cave, and their bones with it.

 

‘No’ Bō said, raising his head slowly and slithering close to them. Taekwoon stood up, pulling Hakyeon along by his hands.

Memories of frescos flashed through his mind, once majestic, but now all but forgotten pictures of mighty beasts etched in gold.

 

‘Not everything, not yet.’ Bō continued, and Taekwoon understood immediately, even as he remained hesitant to believe.

 

‘But we will.’ Bō said, eyes gleaming blue in the dark. Hakyeon raised a hesitant, questioning hand, and Bō pushed his nose against it, the gesture intimate and familiar, before he bowed his head before Hakyeon. ‘We’d give you anything, Hakyeon. Anything we have.’

 

And so Bō let Hakyeon search through his immense pile of treasures, letting him chose a small cartful of golds and riches to bring all the way up to the big city by the mouth of the river to sell.

He left with the first light of dawn, and didn’t return for days. Days that Taekwoon and Bō spent in a suspended state of unease, because they had him for so long now, and it had been years since the last time they couldn’t feel Hakyeon’s presence on the edge of their minds.

 

Bō made a nest for himself out of his treasures, organizing them in neat, spiraling circles and curled up on top of them, with Taekwoon nestled in the embrace of his forelegs.

 

 _‘I thought no-one was allowed to take your precious treasures… But you just gave them to him like that…’_ Taekwoon thought, staring at the stalactites hanging from the ceiling. One kept dripping, glistening, tiny pearls of cold water hitting the same spot in the middle of his outstretched palm. Drip. Drip. Drip.

Everything was muted and washed-out and their hearts followed the rhythm of it.

Finally, Bō broke the silence, using his words instead of his thoughts. His rumbling voice echoed both between the walls and within Taekwoon’s chest.

 

‘He’s the biggest treasure we’ve ever had, Taekwoon.’

 

Four days had passed like that, and on the fifth, the sea called out, washing up a message against the walls of their cave.

 

‘I love you’ it whispered, but not in her own voice. ‘I love you. Be safe’ murmured the waves as they licked at Taekwoon’s feet. ‘I love you. Goodbye’

 

‘Hakyeon’ was all they both said - a whisper, a shout, an invocation. And then they were off, diving into the sea and swimming, twin spears through the water. Taekwoon’s heart was drumming in his ears and Bō was burning him up from the inside - all their thoughts, their fears, the unforgiving cold of panic seizing them up. Something was wrong. Somehow, somewhere, Hakyeon was calling out to them, and they were coming to answer.

 

The road to the city took almost a day on foot - the swim down the coast and up the river much, much less. And yet, they’d almost been too late.

 

The river was grey and murky and much, much lazier than the sea, and there were a thousand alien smells and tastes on their tongues as they swam through it. But underneath the garbage and sooth and sewage, there was just the faintest scent of Hakyeon, lingering. They followed him and emerged onto a wide, pawed riverbank, soaring through the surface and shooting up into the sky, the water of the river raining down all around them.

 

They’d never been to the city before, but maybe, in a different time, on a different day, they could’ve liked it. Everything was carved out of soft, honey-colored stone - the streets and the walls of the buildings, reaching high and proud and covered with tiny, protruding balconies made of cleverly twisted metals. The tiles on the roofs may have been angry red once, but the sun softened them to a dusky rose, and flowers were hanging from narrow window sills everywhere. And colors, so many colors, colors that rivaled the fish of the reef - purple and yellow and red and pink flowers and bright blue and vivid green shutters -, the city was adorned with every color of the rainbow, like small splashes of paint against the old and worn and wise bricks and cobblestones.

And most of all, there were people everywhere. The first thing they saw was the people, a plethora, a swarm of people everywhere, crowding in the square, filling the narrow side-alleys, hanging out from their windows and their clever balconies. These weren’t the villagers with their soft features and rough syllables and tired hands and warm smiles - they were humans but with all their edges sharpened like knives, their brightness overwhelming, their smell sour, their voices shrill as they shouted, angry, and then screamed, terrified.

 

The stench of their horror clogged Taekwoon’s and Bō’s noses and their colors blinded them, so it took moments, just hanging in the air, suspended, before they spotted him.

 

In the middle of the square, on a brand new, hastily built podium, there stood Hakyeon, with his hands behind his back and his head held high and a wobbly smile on his lips and a noose waiting, hanging just behind him from a strong beam.

And they realized with a start that his hands were behind him like that because he’d been tied up, and that there were shackles around his ankles and his clothes were torn and bruises were blooming all across his once pristine, glowing skin.

 

Days of suspended fear, nights of fitful sleep, hours of doubts and worries clenched their heart as they stared, frozen, at Hakyeon, their Hakyeon, their beautiful, strong, fearless, magical Hakyeon, chained up and beaten and stood up like a criminal, like filth, like anyone, anything, any soul in this big and stinking garbage dump could ever hope to be him, to understand him, to gain the right to touch him. Yet here he was, exposed to their whims, powerless in the face of this great, hungry mob - the second most terrifying monster of them all. Taekwoon and Bō suddenly remembered again, all of their hatred and mistrust and contempt for the petty, mindless human race, and their panic finally gave away to wrath.

 

Like how the ice breaks, their confused fear broke and they came crashing through the still moment like the unforgiving storm.

 

‘Monster!’ someone screamed, and they looked around and took their many faces in. You’re the monsters, they thought. ‘You’re the monsters’ they roared, and ‘You will pay!’

That was the last coherent thought they had, just before anger completely overcame them, and they embraced it like an age-old friend.

 

The next roar they let out shook the buildings around the square to their foundations - windows broke and tiles fell and the river crushed its banks and reared up all around them, but they weren’t seeing anything anymore. Their rage was like oil spreading in water, a dark film of it settling over their vision and their hearts - they roared again and the river answered, flooding the square, the buildings, the people scattering like ants beneath their feet. There were pointy things, spears and arrows hurled towards them but they barely even noticed, their clawed feet battling them away like flies.

Maybe they couldn’t breathe fire, but they could still breath death, and they did - each roar shattered more houses, each swing of their tail sent more people flying, each wave pulled more under. Blood and magic was dripping from their maw, and it tasted fresh and it tasted ancient and it tasted not enough, never enough, not until every single soul in this city perished, not until they brought it all down, not until everyone, everything that touched him, hurt him, tarnished him was forgotten, gone, destroyed, destroyed, destroyed.

 

Like the legends, they were the second coming.

 

Bloodlust filled their heart and they relished it, relished their powers running amok, relished the gurgling screams.

 

But still they heard when Hakyeon called their name.

 

The river crushed the podium but steered clear of Hakyeon, gently flowing around him in a wide berth, shielding him, protecting him, leaving him untouched - but there were tears in his eyes. Not tears of fear, but tears of grief.

 

‘That’s enough, Taekwoon, please, it’s enough now!’

 

And Taekwoon froze - the primal rage that was Bō still throbbed inside his head but his eyes found Hakyeon and locked onto him now, and his heart missed a beat. He beckoned with his hand and the water slowly embraced Hakyeon, lifting him up and pulling him to Taekwoon and Bō, to the safety of their embrace. Thunder danced in his eyes when he tore the ropes and shackles, and there was no forgiveness left in him as he turned to the ruins again. But Hakyeon reached out and turned his head back to him, looked into his eyes and even with his bruises and his split lips, his eyes and his soul behind them remained unchanging. Dark. Steel.

 

‘Stop this nonsense, Taekwoon. Stop killing them -’

‘But they hurt you’

‘On the outside. But this, this is hurting both me and you on the inside. Not everybody here deserves to die…’

 

Bō screamed again, with anger and with agony and with fury, and his voice was shaking the heavens now.

Hakyeon reached out and touched his head gently, touched his snout and touched the small patches of green under his eyes.

His voice was quiet, but it left no room for argument.

‘I. Said. That’s. Enough. Bō, you stop it too. The both of you, end this right now.’

 

As he pulled back, so did the river.

 

Hakyeon stayed very still, his eyes taking in the damage they’ve done. He barely seemed to be breathing, but Taekwoon could hear the frantic thrumming of his heart.

 

‘You better remember this’ Taekwoon’s voice boomed, reverberating on the few walls that still stood. He let his gaze wander slowly around, staring at the quivering survivors one by one. ‘You remember him and you remember how he showed you mercy. You remember that he’s the only reason you are still alive. You remember that he was the one who spared you. He was the one that saved your city from me.’

 

And then they turned and dived back into the river, Taekwoon holding Hakyeon close and swearing never to let go of him again.

 

They almost lost him, that one time.

 

~*~

 

They swam in silence for a long time, exhaustion pulling at their bones and leaving their heads open for a myriad dark, terrifying thoughts.

When the seawater woke Bō a little, after they reached the delta, he started swimming with a renewed energy, coming up every once in a while to take in the great expanse of the glittering sea. Taekwoon finally broke the silence then, speaking up hesitantly as he sat behind Hakyeon.

 

‘Are you… are you okay?’ he asked, and immediately regretted it, because he hadn’t moved as much as a muscle since they left the city. He was almost killed. How could he be okay?

‘No. But I will be’ Hakyeon whispered. No matter how hard Taekwoon tried to warm him up, his skin stayed cold, and his voice wasn’t any different. ‘Just… take me home, Taekwoon.’

 

‘We’re almost there now, just one more town up the…’

 

‘No’ Hakyeon cut in, turning back between the brackets of his arms and looking at Taekwoon for the first time in hours. ‘No, Taekwoon. Take me _home_.’

And then, he fell into the fitful abyss between sleep and unconsciousness again.

 

 _‘Don’t do this, Taekwoon’_ Bō warned, as they reached the bay by the village, and Taekwoon got off his back, gathering a sleeping Hakyeon into his arms. ‘He didn’t want this, and neither do you.’

 

 _‘This isn’t about what we want’_ Taekwoon shook his head, his chest full of rocks and his legs dragging themselves across the coarse sand. Every step hurt - not his body, but somewhere deep, somewhere inside, somewhere right next to the constant, warm murmur of Bō in his heart, his limbs. Like everything was splitting, bones shattering and embedding themselves into soft tissue - as he carried Hakyeon into the small house he called his own, Taekwoon was bleeding out, slow and sure and invisible, onto the sand.

_‘This is about what he needs. To be… away from us.’_

 

_‘No, no you’re wrong, Taekwoon. You’re wrong, we have to bring him back!’_

 

Bō was shouting in his head now, and for a second, Taekwoon feared he’d snap and wreak havoc like he did in the city - but he welcomed the noise drowning out his thoughts, and he welcomed the fear, too. All it did was remind him that he was right.

Bō was waiting for him on the shore, his eyes like ice and his voice like thunder. Never before had Taekwoon felt so at unease, so unbalanced, so… far. Like he saw Bō and Bō saw him, yet their vision was blurred, their voice lost in vacuum. Lost in the deep, heavy dark sea - alone for the first time in his life.

 

 _‘Taekwoon if you don’t get him back… if you do this…’_ Bō growled, standing up to tower over him. Rivulets of seawater ran down his hide, his claws dug deep, violent gashes into the sand and the parting sunlight caught on his spikes.

They stared each other down in deafening silence. Bō’s gills trembled, and so did Taekwoon’s throat, and then -

 

‘I hate you!’ Bō roared, loud and pained and full of emotion, and then turned and dove right into the sea, disappearing in the quickly darkening water, leaving Taekwoon alone on the beach.

 

‘Yes’ he said, closing his eyes and turning his face against the gently caressing breeze. The entire world was painted red, the sun bleeding out onto the myriad tiny blades of unforgiving waves, just as Taekwoon was. A shudder ran through him when the first, cruel drop of tear fell from his eyes. Maybe, he thought, it was easier, sometimes it had to have been easier, to be the Bō part of them, and not the Taekwoon part. ‘I hate myself, too.’

 

Days passed by in a haze. Hakyeon was gone, and so was Bō, his sadness and anger at Taekwoon too heavy for the stuffy cave. He still felt him, always felt him, swimming around somewhere in the west, out in the deep sea, breathing in the soothing cold and dark. Taekwoon tried, and failed, to draw some tranquility from their link, but it was too full of disappointment and pain now.

 

Everything was just too full of pain. Or maybe it wasn’t the pain that grew, it was just that everything seemed bigger and harder to carry all alone.

 

A big storm came and went, but Taekwoon could not find peace amongst the clouds, up in the sky or down under the waves anymore.

 

Then, as suddenly as it disappeared, the sun returned, and it brought Hakyeon back with it.

 

When he showed up at the cave, Taekwoon had to hide in the shadows for a few breaths, to calm down, to collect himself, to gather enough strength to send him away. Because as soon as he saw him, his heart cried out and his face bloomed into a smile and his stomach dropped and his spine tingled and his head filled with so much joy he was sure it would make him glow.

Maybe it did. Maybe that’s how Hakyeon found him, his steps sure and unquestionable as they carried him to Taekwoon hidden in the dark. Or maybe he was just as attuned to Taekwoon as Taekwoon was to him now.

 

‘You can’t hide from me, Taekwoon’ was what Hakyeon said, and Taekwoon had half the mind to laugh, because wasn’t that just right? Wasn’t that just the problem, the painful truth, that Taekwoon couldn’t hide himself from Hakyeon anymore?

 

‘Not hiding’ he lied, letting Hakyeon step up to him, letting him bring Taekwoon’s palm to his mouth and gently blow on it. It was his way of asking Taekwoon to make light, and for the love of every single god in the universe he couldn’t say no.

 

The small orbs of light circled Hakyeon, like they were happy to see him, casting nimble shadows all over the grim walls, and Taekwoon, betrayed by his very own magic, now really wanted to disappear.

 

‘Don’t lie to me’ Hakyeon clicked his tongue, tilting his head a little to the side, but he didn’t move closer. Instead, he let go of his wrist and didn’t move to touch him any more. ‘But maybe you really aren’t. After all, you’re here… where you knew I’d find you’

 

‘I didn’t think you’d want to find me’ Taekwoon answered. No lying. No use.

 

Hakyeon sighed, deep and pained, and from that one sound, from that one rise of his shoulders and expanding of his chest, Taekwoon knew that he understood.

 

‘Of course I would. You found me too, didn't you? Against all reason, you found me… And then left me, like a coward’

 

‘You’re angry…’ Taekwoon blinked, confused. This really wasn’t how he was expecting this conversation to go - but then again, he wasn’t expecting to be having this conversation at all.

 

‘Of fucking course I’m angry, Taekwoon! You just… you dropped me off like, like I was some… package to be delivered, you just fucking left me there, to recover, alone! When I woke up and didn’t see the rocks, these fucking rocks around us, I got so scared I couldn’t breathe!’ Hakyeon didn’t raise his voice, but somehow, that was worse. Each word cut like a slap across Taekwoon’s cheeks.

 

‘But then… that made me think. About you, about myself. About us. About what happened… back there.’

 

‘What happened…? We happened, Hakyeon. I happened. A dragon happened. And it could… always happen again. You can’t tell me that doesn’t frighten you.’

Taekwoon took a shaky breath and let his magic surface. Let his skin cool and his eyes burn up, let his - Bō’s - their unabashed curiosity and alien detachment, ancient wisdom and childish ignorance all at once show on his face. If Hakyeon was so keen to see him, really see him for who they were, or if he was to stop pretending to know Taekwoon and what it meant to be Taekwoon, he might as well take in everything now. ‘I can hear it… now, too, I hear it in the way your pulse is racing.’

 

‘Is that why you think it’s racing?’ Hakyeon snorted, a part angry and part something more, and grabbed Taekwoon’s hand again, to pull it to his chest and lay it atop his feverishly beating heart.

‘Yes I am afraid. But not of you, Taekwoon, not since a long time.’

‘But I am afraid of myself, with you’ he continued. His heart was trying to break through his ribs, but his eyes were steady, looking into Taekwoon, truly looking, like he always did with this keen, dark, infallible, burning gaze, deep into Taekwoon’s eyes and inside him, underneath his worries and his anger and his cautiousness that always made him feel like he was holding back a breath or a scream.

 

‘I feel safe with you, and that’s what scares me. Knowing that I should be, knowing who you are, having seen what you can do and knowing what I can’t…  Knowing how much more powerful you are than me, and knowing you’d do… what you did, because of me.

Yes, it’s frightening. How easily and completely I’ve become part of this, part of... Part of you, and how unwilling I am to ever let go, to ever go back to the me before you.

I’m scared of my humanity, because at one point, it will have to set us apart, but more than that I’m scared _for_ it. I’m scared of the power I might hold over you… But more than seeing you, I’m scared of seeing myself. Because, Taekwoon, believe me, I never wanted to be the reason for people dying. And yes, it did occur to me that I wasn’t going to be the one to set you upon the world.’

 

‘But then… then I realized that I didn’t mind. That if this was life with you, I’d take it. I want to take it. I want you and I want to be with you, just as you are, fangs and claws and all. And if you’re a monster, Taekwoon, if after all you’ve taught me of dragons and men, somehow, somewhere deep you still believe yourself to be a horror, then the truth is, I am one too. And I don’t even have an excuse like you. My only excuse, the greatest danger I pose, is that I want to be with you.’

 

By the time he finished, all his initial hesitation, of which there hadn’t been much in the first place, was washed away by the strong, bright determination shining in his eyes, growing brighter with each word until his entire soul, the depths of his heart, was bared, laid out before Taekwoon right onto the floor of a cold, wet cave.

 

Taekwoon didn’t answer, because he couldn’t. He couldn’t possibly have an answer to all of that, couldn’t possibly promise not to do something that he knew he would, again. Couldn’t possibly lie big enough to deny the clear accusation - that Hakyeon was, in fact, right about the power he held over Taekwoon. And that while he might have been human, his life had already been woven into the tapestry of immortal magic, and there was no way for him to back out now. That he’d been changed forever - just by being with Taekwoon, he’d set himself apart, and he could never have them both, Taekwoon and the safety of a normal life.

 

Maybe there was a moment in there, somewhere, where he could’ve still warned Hakyeon, denied him, tell him to run off. But that would’ve meant losing him for good, and Taekwoon, with all his years and wisdom and quietness, was still a dragon. He’d tried, he’d forced himself to give Hakyeon up, but even that didn’t work, and as he saw Hakyeon learning and knowing and accepting himself, he realized how foolish he’d been, trying to deny his own self. He was a dragon, and it just wasn’t in his nature to let his treasures go.

 

But even as warmth and gratitude flooded his every fiber, still he couldn’t open his mouth to speak, didn’t know what to say, except -

 

‘Are you… sure?’

 

And, like so many times before, Hakyeon laughed.

 

‘Am I…? Okay’ he rolled his eyes, smiling, and took a deep breath to calm his features before speaking again.

 

‘Do you love me, Taekwoon?’

 

There it was. The oldest question, the simplest question, the question that grabbed the four edges of the world to shake it out of shape and rebuild it in the likeness of someone’s image. Hakyeon’s image.

 

Yet no matter how heavy the question, how complex and loaded, how dangerous and frightening, the answer was on Taekwoon’s tongue before he could so much as blink.

 

‘Yes’ he said, and finally, finally he was smiling back at Hakyeon, the serpent curling around his chest crumbling to dust and his body taking orders again. He lifted his free hand to caress Hakyeon’s face, to touch and commit every one of his features to memory as if seeing him for the first time.

 

‘Are you sure?’ Hakyeon prodded, playful, as he stepped closer to run his own hand down Taekwoon’s neck and then lay it atop Taekwoon’s heart, mirroring him. They stood there, palms to hearts, eyes to eyes, and a quietness descended upon them. Seagulls fell silent, waves stilled, the sun pushed clouds out of the way - the sea held its breath as it waited.

 

‘Yes’ Taekwoon said. There was a rumble, a shuddering release of breath, somewhere, sending a ripple through the threads of the weave that was the universe.

 

‘Then so am I’ Hakyeon nodded, pulling Taekwoon close and hugging his waist. ‘See? I told you all one has to do is face their fears…’

 

‘Well then’ Taekwoon replied, looking aside for a moment to try and control his features into something more serious, more somber, because Hakyeon’s breath was ghosting over his lips and he could feel himself losing his mind. ‘Now we’ve seen what happens when I face mine.’

 

‘If you don’t want that to happen again, don’t push me away, then, not ever again’ Hakyeon scolded, and when their lips finally, finally met, it was just as much a promise as it was a kiss.

 

‘How did you even find me?’ Hakyeon asked a little while later, pushing himself up over Taekwoon on the nest of blankets they called their bed. Taekwoon, hazy with emotions and lust, had to shake his head like there was water in his ears, just to bring himself back enough to answer.

 

‘You… You called. We heard you calling…’

 

‘I did, did I?’ Hakyeon blinked, surprised, and Taekwoon reached up to touch his smile. Thin, black cuts were still criss-crossing across Hakyeon’s impossible, plump lips and a shadow of a bruise was left blooming under one of his bright eyes and another one against his temple. Never before had he seemed so fragile, so human - so perfect, so timelessly beautiful.

 

‘Huh. I was just… Never thought you’d hear it, not really. But I… after they put me into prison, because they called me a pirate, can you believe that? An actual pirate, what were they thinking? Had to be the gold, the jewelry, they said I stole it, stupid, they lost it to the sea… Anyhow, so there was this little stream, half sewage, really, but it was going into the river and I thought… No, I didn’t think, but I hoped, that maybe, that it could reach the sea. Reach you.’ He sighed, taking a deep breath as if just realizing he still needed air, sometimes, and then leaned in. He took Taekwoon’s face between his own hands, and pressed their foreheads together, taking several more breaths to calm himself. Taekwoon could tell that he was reliving some memories, memories that he’d much rather forget, and the way his pulse raced up made Taekwoon want to march right back to the city and bring it all down to dust.

 

‘Remember when you said we don’t pray to you? It seems to me like we really should…’ Hakyeon huffed, in the end, and then he looked up and smiled, small and broken and brave, and then he kissed him, crashing his mouth against Taekwoon’s in such a fierce determination it knocked their teeth together.

 

And Taekwoon responded in kind.

 

His hands grabbed onto Hakyeon, finally, finally pulling him as close as he didn’t dare before, hands running up into his hair and down his back, nimble fingers across hot skin, hungry mouth on hungry mouth, rioting heart calling out to rioting heart.

They kissed but it felt like breathing, and they shed each other’s clothes but it felt like being born again. Taekwoon tried, and failed, to hold the ancient hunger back in himself, and he felt Bō’s consciousness again, stirring behind his eyes as he laid Hakyeon down and looked him up and down and up again, taking stock of every inch of sunny skin, every goosebump and cut and bruise.

 

‘Mine’ they growled, content and proud. ‘Mine, mine, mine.’

 

And Hakyeon threw his head back and laughed, and combed his fingers through Taekwoon’s long hair and laughed and locked eyes with him and pulled him down and whispered, right against his ear. ‘Yes, yours. And you, you’re mine too. Mine forever.’

 

They’d made love before, but never like this, never this hungry, never this raw, this determined. Every sigh Hakyeon sighed was a demand, and every growl from Taekwoon’s throat was a possessive warning, a declaration. He kissed every inch of Hakyeon’s skin and felt jealous of the sun for doing the same, and Hakyeon held onto him so tight his nails drew blood all across Taekwoon’s back and shoulders. They drank the whispers of each other’s names right out of each other’s mouths and still their thirst never quenched. When Taekwoon rolled on top of Hakyeon, he bit all along his graceful neck and Hakyeon moaned and pulled at his hair and left angry red bite marks all over Taekwoon’s shoulders in response.

 

There was a strange, raw animalness to Hakyeon when he made love - in the way he clawed at Taekwoon’s skin, desperate like he feared Taekwoon would slip from his grasp, like he was a volatile mirage, a dream on the edge of wakefulness, footprints in the sand. And Taekwoon wondered, always wondered, how someone as mortal and finite as Hakyeon could feel as constant, as infinite as he did. With the way his eyes burned, he’d forever be carved into the canvas of Taekwoon’s soul.

 

When Hakyeon climbed on top of Taekwoon, sinking slowly down, Taekwoon forgot speech and cried out, and the walls of the cave echoed Hakyeon’s name in a million crystalline whispers, amplifying and immortalizing and locking it within themselves for the distant future.

It was their home, the shrine to Taekwoon’s devotion for Hakyeon and to Hakyeon’s adoration of Taekwoon, and they consecrated it that night again, and again and again, until their breaths ran out and their power gently bled into each other and their souls finally, finally settled against the sweaty blankets and slowly cooling skin.

 

““““““““““***”””””””””””

 

At first, there was water.

 

Then, there was light.

 

Then finally, there was sound.

_(Papa? Papa! It’s Dad, Papa, he’s calling for you!)_

 

They liked their cave, but Bō kept growing, and so did the village, and so did the number of people knowing of them, which was something Taekwoon still didn’t quite appreciate.

 

‘You simply must celebrate the festival with us!’ they’d say, and they’d build the biggest bonfire and they’d listen to Bō and Taekwoon sing by the burning embers, but the waves carried their voice too far away.

 

‘I want to see magic, teach us magic!’ they’d beg, the children climbing up and down Bō’s coils, and when Taekwoon didn’t watch, the dragon would make sparks dance like butterflies and small whirlwinds stir up the sand in the bay.

 

‘They talk about you, you know’ they’d whisper, all secret-like, to Hakyeon as he bid them good-night. ‘They say you saved them from a monster. The river’s groom, they call you, in the city and the other towns…’

 

And so they said their goodbyes, some more tearful than others, and down they went, down and down south by the coast, in search of a new home.

They swam out in the open sea, deep underwater where Bō’s giant form couldn’t be seen more than as a menacing shadow, and they climbed ashore at night, lighting small fires and watching the rainbow sparks join the stars as they talked, Taekwoon’s head in Hakyeon’s lap, Bō’s thick neck behind their back.

 

They passed sandy beaches white as bone and vast as a graveyard, and high, steep cliffs so black they seemed blue.

 

The cavern they chose was yellow like honey, and its shallow tide pools green with gently moving seaweed. There were no stalactites here, no constant music of steadily dripping water, but the waves sang instead, gently kissing the round edges of the pools, repeating a lullaby. The walls were high and the rock soft, and sunlight filtered through many small, partly hidden openings above their heads, mirrored in the water and across the sparkly, twirling red and pink and orange lines of the sandstone.

 

Bō and Taekwoon built a small house atop the cliff over the new cave, fashioning bricks out of yellow stones, and they carved a staircase into the side of the rock, so Hakyeon didn’t have to climb or fly every time. Hakyeon made furniture, out of driftwood and black logs they bought at a nearby town, taking the trip with just the two of them, leaving a reluctant Bō behind.

 

They hung sheer, white sheets into the windows and painted window panes, and after months and months of hard work, Taekwoon and Hakyeon slept in a real bed for the first time.

Then Bō began his journey to bring all of his treasures down from the old, now abandoned cave.

 

That year, they celebrated the festival with just the three of them, and as they watched the small float disappear amongst the midnight blue of the waves, they thought that they could get used to all this peace and quiet and the warmth of each other.

 

But in the end, they didn’t stay like that for too long.

 

~*~

 

One night, Taekwoon woke to waves of unease from Bō. He found the dragon down by the shore crawling up and down in protective loops by the foot of the stairs, his deep voice rumbling a warning, but not at Taekwoon.

 

There was another dragon in the water. She stood just at the edge of the shallows where the water suddenly dropped neck-deep, her shoulders white like flotsam in the moonlight, her long, angular head sitting atop an elegant, lean neck, eyes unmoving, unblinking.

He was in so much awe he didn’t even notice the child at first. Not until she spoke.

 

‘Héyǐn’ said a trembling, high-pitched voice and Taekwoon jumped like he’d been bit, when he turned to see a small child, not older than maybe four or five years, making her way to the sea step by wobbly little step. He rushed to her and took her up in his arms, and shuddered at how cold her body felt, how little resistance she gave at being handled. She just continued to stare at the dragon, and the dragon kept her gaze for a few more, hopeful moments, before the daze broke and she roared, anger and frustration rousing the sleeping seaside.

 

‘Let her to me!’ she growled, agitated. She seemed torn between trying to snatch the half-asleep child from Taekwoon’s arms and keeping her distance from Bō, who was easily twice her size. She must have been quite young, because Taekwoon knew that female water dragons tended to grow bigger and stronger than males, although he’d never seen one with her many strange, twisted, antler-like horns and pale, greenish-white colouring before.

Eventually, she seemed to have made up her mind, because she growled again, and lunged, swift like lightning, straight at Taekwoon, roaring ‘She’s mine!’

 

But Bō was there too, there in an instant, throwing himself between the dragon and Taekwoon, and he felt their power stir in his guts, felt righteous anger flood his head, felt his vision going dark.

 

He looked at the shivering child in his arms, and for the first time in his life, Taekwoon gently pushed Bō out.

 

But just as Bō was about to complain, Hakyeon arrived, too.

 

They moved as one to step between him and the other dragon, to shield him from the potential danger, but if anything, she looked even more confused now.

The child in Taekwoon’s arms started to cry, and the dragon deflated, crouching down in the shallow water and moving her long neck left and right, trying to make eye contact with the little girl again. She made a low, softly grumbling noise that seemed to echo inside her entire body, and Taekwoon realized with a start that it was a song.

Hakyeon came up to Taekwoon and touched his shoulder, glancing back and forth between  the other dragon and the child with as much curiosity as fear.

 

‘You can’t keep her’ the dragon said, again. Like Hakyeon, she kept glancing around too, but Taekwoon and Bō both saw that she was looking for cracks in their defence, for the best time to strike again. ‘She needs me, let her come, let her come to me!’

Afraid of them, she was biding her time as she worked on a plan. Taekwoon placed the girl into Hakyeon’s arm, his heart stumbling for a second as he saw the gentle, loving smile he gave her, and then stepped forth to talk, but Hakyeon spoke faster.

 

‘She’s just a child!’ he said, hugging her close and rocking her little body gently against his chest. ‘If you bring her into the sea, she’ll drown!’

 

‘No she won’t’ she scoffed, her eyes burning white-hot, and at the animosity in her voice, Bō lashed out, just close enough so she’d jump back.

 

‘Don’t even think about it. He’s ours’ he rumbled, and her eyes squinted in confusion for a second, before she focused back on the child.

 

‘I don’t care about him. Or you. These are your shores, I can smell it… Give her back and I’ll be gone again.’

 

‘She might be too small…’ Taekwoon shook his head, regarding the girl again. She seemed to have fallen asleep with her eyes half-open, unmoving in Hakyeon’s embrace.

 

‘You were smaller… when you came’ Bō hummed in appraisal, and Hakyeon suck in a quick, shocked breath.

 

‘Taekwoon, you can’t seriously be considering…?’

 

‘No, I wasn’t. I was easily twice her size’ Taekwoon shook his head at Bō, who only frowned, but didn’t argue. In all fairness, Taekwoon wasn’t sure Bō realized that he’d grown in size since then at all. ‘But it might be the right thing, still… She’s a dragon, love. Her other half’ he clarified, nodding at the dragon in the water.  ‘Keeping them apart is the worst possible thing we could do to both of them.’

 

Hakyeon took a quiet but very deep, slow breath, regarding them all, his dragons, with a slightly turned head, as he often did when he was thinking.

 

‘I wasn’t ten yet, when I had to leave home to find Bō’ Taekwoon continued, his heart beating fast in his ears. For all the years they’d been together, this wasn’t a story he told Hakyeon yet.

‘I say I had to leave, but in reality, my family threw me out. Because they didn’t understand… Because they saw that I was different, and they feared it. My own parents, they feared me.’

With each word, speaking became easier and easier, until it was all but flowing out of him, his gaze lazily shifting from Hakyeon to the little girl and back again. He wasn’t worried that Hakyeon wouldn’t understand, but he had no way of knowing if it would be enough to convince him.

 

‘You know how… wary I am of people, right? Well, that’s the reason. Part of the reason. People and dragons… young dragons, they don’t mix very well. I have a friend, whose entire village had to burn, for him to be free. Because there is this calling in us, this force that pulls us to our other halves, and we can push it aside, we can chose not to answer, sure, but that never ends well, does it? Only brings us pain. Us and everyone, who’s unlucky enough to stand between us and our dragons. And only together can we be truly ourselves. I… without Bō, I am nothing. A shadow of myself, a voiceless ghost. And he too, he’d just be a great and powerful beast crazy with pain, mad with a hollowness that eats his heart away.’

 

‘If she’s here, Hakyeon…’ Bō cut in, sensing Taekwoon’s agitation. ‘Look, she made it to the shore, all on her own, because the calling was too strong, her need too great, and… Well, they probably didn’t make an effort to keep her. Her parents, I mean. Some hundred years may have passed, but people didn’t change, not about this. They just learnt that you have to let the dragon become one, if you don’t want to see the world go up in flames.’

 

Hakyeon moved close to Taekwoon, hesitant at first but determined by the time he got close enough to press a kiss against his temple. He then looked at the dragon, and the girl, and back up at Taekwoon agan, his forehead wrinkled with the bugging pain of old memories. Finally, Hakyeon seemed to have come to a decision, because he righted the child against his shoulder, and turned to Taekwoon.

 

‘You trust me? You trust that I know you?’ he asked, quiet enough so only the two of them would hear. Taekwoon felt the foreboding of fate clogging his throat, and his voice came out hoarse.

 

‘I do.’

 

Hakyeon’s eyes smiled.

 

‘And you trust us?’

 

‘Yes? Hakyeon, what are you…’ but he never got to finish before Hakyeon simply gave the child back to him, running a loving hand down Taekwoon’s arm as he embraced her carefully.

He watched as Hakyeon walked down the shore, patting Bō’s neck reassuringly as he stepped by, his thin sleeping gown billowing around his slender form in the breeze, moonlight kissing the imprints his feet left in the sand.

Four dragons, and still Hakyeon was the most formidable thing on the beach that night.

 

He stopped in front of the dragon, standing up to his ankles in the sea, unflinching as she moved closer despite Bō’s warning growl.

 

‘Who are you?’ He asked, his voice open and respectful, but cold with distance.

 

The dragon regarded him, curiously but also in awe - maybe at his foolish bravery, maybe at the way magic and eternity radiated through his obvious mortality.

 

‘They call me Héyǐn. I keep the secrets of the river. And she’s Yura, and she’s mine.’ She finally answered, lowering her head just a little to be at level with Hakyeon’s face. Hakyeon smiled and slowly reached out a hand.

‘My name is Hakyeon, and I am one of the secrets you keep.’ He said, folding his hands in front of himself when Héyǐn didn’t move. ‘They call me the river’s groom. And I’m asking you not to take this child.’ She snarled at that, but Hakyeon lifted a hand, and waited for her to quiet down before he continued.

 

‘Instead, I am asking you both to stay. She is yours and you are hers and I’d… we’d never stand between that. We’d never let anyone, anything come between Taekwoon and Bō.

But even though Yura is a dragon, she’s still merely a child. I don’t doubt that you’d take care of her, but I doubt she’d be too happy, growing up without people. She’s still part human, too. I know you may think otherwise, but I’ve known Taekwoon long enough to see… you need us as much as you need each other.’

‘Taekwoon was cast aside, when he was small. If she’s here, alone, I’m afraid she won’t be missed either, from where she came. But ask them, ask yourself, look into her eyes and ask her - does she really have to grow up alone?’

 

He stared into Héyǐn’s eyes for a long, heavy moment, then turned to Taekwoon, exposing his back to the dragon as easily as if it was nothing. But Taekwoon saw his throat tremble, saw his knuckles whiten as he kept his hands clasped, saw his eyes lighting up with a plea for a second. He beckoned them and they came, Taekwoon and the child and Bō right behind them. Hakyeon put an arm around Taekwoon’s waist, pulling him close and they held Yura together, looking down at her deceptively peaceful, sleeping face with unconscious smiles, before Héyǐn started her strange song again and she stirred, looking up and immediately seeking her.

 

They lowered her gently into the sea, and the water lit up in bright whites and greens, swirling first around her, then the both of them as they finally embraced.

 

‘Let us raise her’ Taekwoon said, entwining his fingers with Hakyeon. ‘Let us help you both.’

 

Héyǐn paid them no mind at first, lost in the relief of having the child close, whispering her name absent-mindedly over and over again as she held onto her neck. Then, satisfied with her safety, she gently lifted her up onto her back, where she fit snugly between her verdant spikes. The shore was quiet for a long time, before Héyǐn finally turned back to them, regarding the three of them curiously. Then, she looked at Bō, her head twisted to the side in a silent question.

 

‘You want me to convince you?’ Bō huffed, straightening up to tower over her, enjoying the way she hunched on instinct.

‘I don’t know if I could, or if I really want to. I’m happy with just Taekwoon and Hakyeon but… they’re probably right, about the child. You’d hide her from the world. I know. I hid Taekwoon, too. I raised him on my own, and honestly I think I did a pretty good job… but. But since then, someone taught us that dragons and humans aren’t meant to be apart. And if you think about it, don’t we come from them? Doesn’t it make sense, for us to learn them, to be together with them?’ Bō continued, his voice contemplating but his mind a content buzz at seeing Hakyeon’s reassuring, proud smile.

 

‘What can they give us, that we don’t already have?’ Héyǐn asked.

 

‘Clarity’ Bō answered.

 

‘Perspective’ Taekwoon added, keeping his eyes on the sleeping girl.

 

‘Love’ Hakyeon smiled, raising his hand that was entwined with Taekwoon’s.

 

‘How human even is yours?’ Héyǐn prodded, edging a little closer to sniff at Hakyeon. ‘He feels… different. Weird, not… not like the others, as he should be…’

 

‘You know, sometimes I wonder about that myself’ Bō laughed, obviously not perceiving her as a threat anymore. ‘But he is the best one, I know that much.’

 

Héyǐn regarded them, contemplating, turning their words over and over in her head, until Yura groaned in her sleep. Then, finally, she nodded, and although she had no lips, Hakyeon could tell just as easily as Taekwoon that she was smiling.

 

‘Oh, but they’re not sleeping in my cave!’ Bō suddenly exclaimed, turning to Taekwoon as if he’d had enough of the touched silence. ‘I don’t like her. She smells like mud and fish.’

 

\-- *---

 

In the end, nobody slept in the cave. Héyǐn refused to let go of Yura even for the night, so they brought out as many blankets and pillows as they could, and the dragon curled up in a circle around them, with the child soundly and peacefully sleeping on top of the fluffy pile. Bō wouldn’t leave the house unattended while the other dragon slept mere feet away, so he came up the hill too, and laid down protectively in front of the door, blocking the better half of the small house with his huge body.

 

Inside the house, Taekwoon and Hakyeon climbed back into their bed, alone together in the silence again.

 

‘Listen… I’m sorry’ Hakyeon whispered into the darkness, long after the rustling of the sheets settled and it became obvious that neither one of them were asleep yet.

Taekwoon had been staring into the darkness, his eyes following imagined patterns as they moved in the air, memories of years long gone and thoughts reaching far into the future racing each other in his head. But he turned at that, his hand seeking out Hakyeon’s chest to lay a soothing hand over his heart in the dark.

 

‘For what?’

 

‘For making that decision alone’ he answered, after a long pause, and Taekwoon wasn’t sure he’d ever heard him this uncertain, this hesitant before. Long gone was the statue of strong will, the man with the fire eyes. Here, in the quiet, dark safety of their bed, he was but Hakyeon, his magnificent, soft, human Hakyeon, whose youngness sometimes still managed to sneak up on Taekwoon and hit him in the face like a rock.

 

‘You didn’t’...’ Taekwoon smiled, pushing himself up on an elbow to look down at Hakyeon, who seemed hesitant to meet his eyes. ‘No. Look at me’ and when he did, Taekwoon smiled even wider and pressed a kiss to the top of his nose.

‘I… It never occured to me to think of it like that, but you’re right. She doesn’t have to grow up alone, just because I did.’

 

‘Well, we’ve already established that I’m always right’ Hakyeon said with a hesitant but playful smirk, reaching up to push Taekwoon’s hair behind his ear. ‘I remember seeing you with the children, back at the village. How happy you were, how carefree… How I never saw you smile quite like you did at them… And then I saw you holding her today and I just thought…’

 

‘What?’ Taekwoon’s whole chest was buzzing with his smile, with the warmth and the love of it, with the way Hakyeon was getting a little cross-eyed looking at him this close, with the way his fingers kept playing with a stray strand of Taekwoon’s hair that fell down to touch the line of Hakyeon’s jaw.

 

‘I just thought that I wanted to see you smile like that again. And then listening to you telling all those… all that. I wanted to make you happy… make her happy… She’s so small, how could I not?’ he sighed, eyes searching Taekwoon’s face for a few long, quiet breaths.

 

‘But is it… what you want, too? Will it make you happy?’ Taekwoon finally asked, before his thoughts could get too loud. ‘We can’t do this just for me.’

 

Taekwoon found that more and more, they now talked without talking, and while it wasn’t anything like with Bō, while he didn’t feel Hakyeon inside his thoughts, he didn’t hear his voice echo in his head, it was even more intimate somehow. More magical, in a way. Like his words, his thoughts, just manifested themselves inside his head, like they were reading thoughts whenever they locked eyes. Taekwoon was addicted to it. But then again, he’d been addicted to Hakyeon for a long time now.

He already knew the answer, before Hakyeon spoke.

 

‘There isn’t anything more I want from life than to raise a child with you, Jung Taekwoon.’ Hakyeon nodded, his smile lighting up his eyes, and Taekwoon’s breath shook as he kissed him before the words in his throat could grow too great and choke him.

 

Their lips were familiar by now, knew each other by touch, by whimper, by soft, searching slides against each other.

They kissed long and slow and languid, but there was nothing casual about it, there never was. Kissing Hakyeon always felt like waking up, like breaking through the clouds to greet the sun, like the anemone carefully blooming after the waves go still. Like drawing a curtain away to let the sunshine in. Like pieces of a misaligned universe falling back into place. Like coming home.

 

Hakyeon’s hands combed through Taekwoon’s hair, scratching against his neck, sliding down onto his shoulders and his arms. When Taekwoon held his jaw to tip his head back gently and push his tongue into his mouth, Hakyeon gasped. When his palms ran all the way down Taekwoon’s back, Taekwoon shuddered. It was growing deeper and hotter, the kiss, but didn’t turn desperate - it stayed slow, and relaxed and safe, a small world within the world. Over the years, their kisses became like drops of water filling the tide pool of their desire for each other - keeping it always just full, always steady, the surface always a mirror pulled taut.

 

Hakyeon’s hands never left Taekwoon’s skin, a grounding, warm touch in the silky night air, and dark, hungry lust was waking in his eyes when Taekwoon broke the kiss to nose along his jaw and look at him.

 

‘So… we’re parents now, then? Fathers?’ he asked, and his smile was full of mischief, the kind that lured sailors into the depths. Over and over, Taekwoon drowned.

 

‘Seems like we are’ he nodded, giddy with the slowly realizing truth of it. He couldn’t tear his gaze away from the way Hakyeon’s mouth was slightly parted, his lips swollen and glistening in the dark, his teeth pearls behind his smile.

 

‘Say… ever had sex with a dad? Because I haven’t, but suddenly it sounds like a good idea, somehow’ he whispered. All of a sudden, the pool was spilling over.

 

‘Oh? Is that what we’re doing now? I wasn’t aware’ Taekwoon teased, but he shivered again at the way Hakyeon’s fingers tightened in his hair in warning.

 

‘You’re insufferable.’

 

‘And you’re breathtaking’ Taekwoon shot back, and that managed to silence Hakyeon long enough for another kiss. He pulled Taekwoon down, pulled him to his neck and guided his mouth along the frantic pulsing of his veins - Taekwoon could smell his blood under his skin, and his mind was fogging over with it.

 

‘Don’t just… say things like that’ Hakyeon whispered, but the tremor in his voice was saying otherwise, so Taekwoon pulled up with a last kiss to his shoulder and climbed over him, settling down onto the top of his thighs, close enough to feel each other but not close to really be enough.

 

‘Why not? It’s true’ he simply answered, because it was, and because it’s taken him years to be able to say it without feeling trivial or embarrassed.

 

‘I miss the days when you were still awkward and in denial about wanting me’ Hakyeon rolled his eyes, as if reading his thoughts, but he let Taekwoon trace his fingers across his features, his eyes fluttering closed in bliss when Taekwoon ran a gentle nail up the side of his neck to his ear, so he really didn’t.

 

‘Well, I’m not, anymore. Now I know that I want you… wanted you since the first time I saw you… Want you all the time, love…’

 

Hakyeon’s heart audibly skipped a beat every time Taekwoon called him that, still, even though it had been years.

It’d been years since Taekwoon first said it, but before that, it’d been years of Hakyeon waiting, patient and understanding and, now Taekwoon knew, loving too, for him to say it. To admit what they both knew, what they saw in each other’s eyes ages ago in a cave with magical algae-lights. Time passed different for Taekwoon, but still he regretted every moment when he didn’t tell him, so now he made sure to never miss a chance.

 

‘That’s right, love, want you right now, too…’ he kept on, reveling in the way Hakyeon’s heart was speeding up and his hips were trying to buck up, seeking friction, how his hands were bundling up the fabric of Taekwoon’s shirt to sneak underneath, to touch and claim.

 

‘Yeah, well, that’s good’ Hakyeon huffed, feigning annoyance, ‘because I want you right fucking now, too, so get naked and grab th…’

 

‘The oil? Yeah, yeah I got it… what’s the rush, though?’

 

‘It’s the middle of the night, Taekwoon’ Hakyeon’s attempt at a glare was admirable, if short-lived, because Taekwoon simply ground his hips down, and Hakyeon’s voice choked. ‘We have a busy day tomorrow, so just…’

 

‘Just, what? Get it over with? And they say romance is dead…’ Taekwoon chuckled, but the sound died in his throat the next second, because Hakyeon had apparently had enough, and shoved him to his side, rolling them over in one swift, and incredibly strong movement that had him kneeling between Taekwoon’s thighs the next moment.

 

His hair was a mess and Taekwoon’s will-o-wisps illuminated him in a halo as he shrugged the half-open night robe off his shoulders and tossed it aside.

He wasn’t wearing pants underneath, which Taekwoon knew, because he never did, but for some reason, seeing him suddenly naked and on top of him with a quiet, unquenchable thirst in his eyes still shocked him into silence.

Hakyeon stayed like that, palms splayed against Taekwoon’s chest, a finger idly drawing over the right side, where Bō’s mark was opening his hungry mouth to devour the world. The moment Hakyeon dove down to claim Taekwoon’s mouth in an all teeth and desperation kiss, he kind of felt like he wanted to, too.

 

Taekwoon’s clothes came off in a frenzy of tugging and kissing and laughing and rolling around in the sheets, until Hakyeon was back above Taekwoon, oil dripping down his fingers and his wrist and the insides of Taekwoon’s thighs. Taekwoon’s breathing was quick now, quick and irregular and impatient, but Hakyeon took his time, because he liked watching for the smallest signs of pleasure on Taekwoon’s face, and because not-so-secretly, Taekwoon liked him taking his time, too.

 

Taekwoon was usually a patient man, but tonight he wasn’t. He grabbed Hakyeon’s hand in warning, forcing him to still the teasing, lazy movements, and then pulled him forcefully closer by the hip, so that Hakyeon would get his message.

 

‘Now whose romance is dead?’ Hakyeon teased, and Taekwoon groaned, defeated. Shaking. Hakyeon was on and over him in an instant, kissing away the small, impatient whimpers, nuzzling against his neck, his own body pulled taut with want, with the white-hot need for Taekwoon.

 

The scorching warmth and mind-blurring wonder of Hakyeon inside him was something Taekwoon never would get tired of, never would get used to - it was the world’s most beautiful and most desperate feeling at the same time. His body tensed, getting used to the feeling but growing impatient at the same time, and Hakyeon was there to ease him, to whisper into his skin and suck on his tongue, genty pull his head by his hair to the side to kiss along his neck, not moving until Taekwoon was trembling, pulling at his hips uselessly, begging without words.

 

He could feel it, their heartbeats syncing with the first, careful, tentative movements and then getting messed up, out of line all over again as they sped up, as Hakyeon heaved and shook atop him, inside him, in front of him. His mouth fell open to a breathy, almost silent ‘O’, his brows furrowing as he tried to hold himself back, and his gaze was searing into Taekwoon’s soul while the graceful, fluid movements of his body and the smell of their sweat mixing overtook Taekwoon’s every thought.

He was himself and he wasn’t, and he thought he knew that feeling before, knew it with Bō, knew it in the way his breath came from two mouths and his heart beat in two chests and one of his skins was hard with scales, but it would never, ever come close to feeling one with Hakyeon.

 

When Hakyeon buried himself into him, his mind, his thoughts dissolved and washed over him like the tide. When he lay underneath Hakyeon, pulling him into himself and getting lost in the feeling of Hakyeon inside him, he stopped being Taekwoon, and instead became them, Hakyeon-and-Taekwoon, two hearts and two minds and two bodies that they chose to share, over and over again. Not by default, not because that’s who they were, but because they wanted to, because they earned it, earned each other. Because the pleasure sizzling along Taekwoon’s nerves was magic in its own right, because claiming Hakyeon raised him to the top of the world, because Hakyeon claiming him was the first breath he ever took underwater. Because their bodies were insistent, starving animals that could never get enough of the smell, the taste, the touch of each other.

 

‘Gods you feel… feel amazing, so right, love, so fucking…’ Taekwoon was rambling now, words of praise spilling over his mindless lips, and Hakyeon giggled, in between soft moans and big gulps of air.

 

‘Sure hope so…’ he grinned, digging his fingertips into Taekwoon’s thighs to hoist them higher up around his waist.

 

He stilled for a moment, and against his better judgement, Taekwoon held his breath, held it until Hakyeon adjusted his hips and moved again.

The next thrust had both of them crying out, and Taekwoon pulled Hakyeon down, pressed his open mouth against his to drink him up, to swallow every moan and whimper.

 

Bō and Taekwoon never chose each other. Bō was simply the other half of his life, Bō was Taekwoon’s darkest moments and brightest peaks, the depths of his soul.

But Hakyeon, Hakyeon was the missing half of his heart, and as profane as that sounded, he never felt it more than when their bodies returned to their intended state of being together, of melting into a sweaty and erratic and mundane mess of flesh and teeth and desire.

 

For all his grace, Hakyeon was growing sloppy, too, but at this point, they barely noticed. At this point, nothing mattered, nothing existed but being as close as inhumanly possible, skin on skin and fingers between fingers, the chasing of pleasure and the almost painful way it finally exploded within them, a lightning down Taekwoon’s spine, white-hot magic everywhere inside.

 

Hakyeon’s eyes always closed shut, when he came, his forehead furrowed and his breath stuck for so long Taekwoon almost worried until he took his first, loud, shaky sigh again. He had many faces and they were all equally beautiful, an angel carved into marble, a nymph made of gold, the mermaid over the beak of the ship, bathed by the bleeding sun -  but this was still one of his favorite ones of them. The complete bliss, the half-shut eyes and the lax, open, swollen mouth, just for a second, right before he collapsed onto Taekwoon’s chest with another content sigh, this was the Hakyeon that Taekwoon kept closer to his heart than anything. The Hakyeon for nobody but Taekwoon in the whole wide world.

 

~*~

 

Later, as they lay atop the crumpled sheets, with Taekwoon’s head on Hakyeon’s chest, Hakyeon’s fingers ran down from where they were twirling Taekwoon’s hair, down his neck and his shoulder to trace the delicate lines of the dragon’s mark on Taekwoon’s skin.

The great, blue form of the dragon seemed to be clinging to Taekwoon’s right shoulder, its claws holding onto his neck and bicep, head hanging low and maw open across the right side of his chest, while its graceful body sneaked all the way down and across his back, his tail curling up just above the dimples of his hips.

 

‘I’ll never grow tired of this’ Hakyeon was murmuring sleepily, his mouth pressed against the top of Taekwoon’s head. ‘It’s so… magnificent, for a tattoo? And honestly, kind of stupidly hot.’

 

‘Thanks…’ Taekwoon murmured, quiet and mellow. He always became like this after sex, blissed-out dizzy, the world a pleasant, constant buzz in the back of his mind. Like he was closed up in a shell. A small, sleepy, satisfied hermit crab.

And, as Hakyeon liked to point out whenever he was feeling like a little shit, which was always, Taekwoon turned into an inseparable cuddler afterwards, too. No matter what exactly they’d done and how, no matter if he was giving or taking, he’d pull Hakyeon up to him like a pillow, clutching his waist securely and falling asleep listening to his heartbeat.

Being alone, truly and strictly alone, wasn’t a feeling Taekwoon even remembered, but in the quiet haze of coming down, an irrational need overcame him, a need to touch, to feel with his body just as his mind felt.

Together. Melded.

Maybe it was his senses dealing with the slow separation of their bodies.

Maybe, Hakyeon laughed, secretly Taekwoon was just a big, soft mush on the inside.

 

‘I’ve been… Thinking about that, actually?’ Taekwoom murmured, his cheek squished against Hakyeon’s ribs.

 

‘That you’re hot?’

 

Taekwoon rolled his eyes, and debated sitting up to look at him, but he wasn’t sure he was ready for another confession, so soon.

‘This connects me and Bō. It’s not so much a tattoo as a mark, a point where we’re tethered. His presence in me, physically.’ Taekwoon waited a few beats. ‘But you know this’

 

‘Yes?’ Hakyeon hummed, puzzled, and even after everything, even with the taste of Hakyeon still on his lips, Taekwoon had to reach inside himself to steel himself.

 

‘I want another one. One for you. It isn’t going to be the same… But still I want it. Your mark on me.’

 

There it was, out in the sleepy quiet of the night, echoing within the walls they built to separate themselves and the rest of the world.

Hakyeon hummed, again, and didn’t say anything, long enough that Taekwoon had to sit up now, sit up and look at him and see his eyes that never lied.

They shone with mirth and mischief now - Hakyeon was biting his lips to hold back a grin, and he was losing.

Taekwoon’s smile, as always, could do nothing but mirror it.

 

‘What?’ he huffed, grabbing a pillow and smacking Hakyeon with it.

‘Nothing, nothing’ Hakyeon laughed, expertly dodging the attack. ‘Just… matching tattoos is kind of, unconventional, I guess. People usually exchange rings, or other tokens for this kind of thing?’

 

‘What kind of thing…?’

 

‘Well, marriage?’ he said, his brow furrowing in pretend-confusion. Taekwoon hated how good mockery looked on him.  

 

‘Oh, you think I’d want to marry you?’ he teased, just because he could, and because it made Hakyeon huff and turn his nose up and hide his own smile.

 

‘Please’ he rolled his eyes, his voice haughty and his posture still. Taekwoon was fighting his laughter back, but Hakyeon was really getting into the game now. ‘You think I do? In your dreams, caveman…’ he huffed, again, and kept looking away, until he gave in and glanced down at Taekwoon from the corner of his eye - and the next second, they both broke out laughing, their bodies shaking until it began to hurt.

 

‘So what makes you think you deserve a ring then?’ Taekwoon asked, later, when their laughter quieted down to wide grins and playful kisses. Hakyeon gently bit his nose.

 

‘That’s not what you were saying last night. Or, like, a little while ago…’

 

‘Okay, but seriously’ Taekwoon shook his head, his voice quiet but turning serious. He pushed Hakyeon just far away enough so that he could look into his eyes, could show that he meant it, could watch the realization slowly drawing on Hakyeon. ‘I’ll get you a ring,  if you’d like. I’ll get you ten. One for each finger. Twenty, for each toe too. I’ll get you diamonds the size of your fist, if you want…’

 

Hakyeon swallowed, considering his words carefully, but also looking for his owns.

 

‘You just have a thing for me in jewelry, don’t you?’ he finally said, mock-accusing, and Taekwoon had half a mind to drop the topic, but at the same time, some deep and slightly masochistic and very, very lovestruck part of him wouldn’t relent.  

 

‘Well. I’m a dragon. We like shiny things, pretty things. Jewelry. You. So, rings then?’

 

Hakyeon kissed him again, exhaled against his mouth and his lips were moving against Taekwoon’s in a whisper so quiet he couldn’t make out the words.

 

‘No. You know what, I think, tattoos might be better, actually. More us. More… Final. Unchangeable.’

 

‘Unchangeable. I like that’ Taekwoon nodded, losing himself to Hakyeon’s gently caressing hands dancing on his skin again.

 

‘What would you even get? For me, I mean, my tattoo?’ Hakyeon asked, some time and many sleepy kisses later.

 

‘Mark. Not really a tattoo. Bō’ll make it, so… An anchor, I think. Right here’ he said, drawing a circle onto the left side of his chest.

 

‘An anchor… over your heart…’ Hakyeon whispered, trying, and failing to hide how his voice trembled. Taekwoon brought his hand to his lips and kissed his knuckles.

 

‘That’s what you are to me. Keeping me grounded, keeping me safe. As long as you’re here, I’ll survive any storm… my anchor, Cha Hakyeon.’

 

‘You’re such a disgusting sap, I can’t believe…’ Hakyeon was rolling his eyes, but his hand was trembling in Taekwoon’s, and then he was rolling on top of him and kissing him with such fierce, determined fire Taekwoon forgot how sleepy they’ve already been hours ago.

 

‘That’s… that’s actually perfect, you know? Because then I can get a ship, for you. It’ll match but it’ll also be true, because that’s what you did, you took me away, turned my life into an adventure. You’re the entire sea, aren’t you, dragon, but still for me you’re the most solid, the surest. My ship atop life. I like that.’

He was nodding now, trying to stay serious, but his smile was slowly but surely taking over his entire face.

Taekwoon would never, ever get tired of it, the crinkle of his eyes, the tint of his cheeks, the white of his teeth, the soft velvet of his voice as he spoke through the smile.

‘I want Bō to do it, too…’

 

‘I’m not sure that’s… such a good idea, love. That’s not something… I don’t think that’s ever happened before, not even between two different dragons, yet alone between dragon and human. If it’s even possible. Part of the mark is the link between us, I’m afraid all it’d do is hurt you…’

 

‘Are you just worried for me, or are you sure it’s not possible?’ Hakyeon pouted, and Taekwoon, as always, had to give in. Not because of the pout, but because Hakyeon was probably right again.

 

‘No. We don’t know. We could… I guess we could try. If there’s ever been one person in this world who could make this work, it’s you’ he sighed, and when Hakyeon started nodding his ‘told-you-so’ nods, Taekwoon just shook his head and pulled him down under his head again, forcing him to lay still, forcing his breathing to slow until finally they fell asleep.

 

~*~

 

At first, there was nothing but water as Taekwoon let the limitless weight of the deep sea overtake all his senses. Nothing was, anymore, nothing but the cold, soothing darkness and the water embracing him, encasing him, suspending him in time.

Then, suddenly, he saw light - two small dots burning through the water, like the bait of the angler fish, mesmerizing, luring in everything down in the forever night. But it wasn’t Taekwoon who swam closer, it was the lights, growing as they approached, and soon Taekwoon could see her, make out her worried features, just as her voice reached him.

 

‘Papa? Papa! It’s dad, papa, he’s calling for you!’

 

Yura’s words rang, distorted, in Taekwoon’s head, but it was her touch, her careful hand on his shoulder, that dragged him from the depths of his memories. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, to return to his body, to pull his mind from the hypnotic rhythm of Bō swimming around him in slow, perfect, infinite circles. He allowed himself a moment to just stare at her - her dark hair, gently floating around her face, the tiny button of her nose, the sharpness of her eyes - maybe she wasn’t theirs by blood, but still she reminded Taekwoon of him, her other father, more than he ever saw himself in her, dragon or not.

 

‘You’ve been gone for hours, papa’ she chided, the soft glow of her eyes dissipating a little as she finally adjusted to the darkness. She never liked the deep sea much, preferred the murky and sweet and treacherous waters by the delta instead. One of the reasons she’d moved out, many years ago. That, and to see and discover the world on her own.

They always knew the day would come, him and Hakyeon, but still their hearts broke a little, and then cracked and cracked again, every time they watched their daughter and Héyǐn swim away.

 

She always returned, in the end. Just like she did now, even without Taekwoon calling, the feeling of her a constant, quiet, reassuring buzz in the back of Taekwoon’s mind, and he in hers. Without fault, she sensed if Taekwoon needed them, and they came.

 

As much as Taekwoon prided himself in excelling at being alone – independent, strong, never lonely in his own company – most of his life’s turning points were caused by someone else. He liked to think that he was the one making all the choices, that he was the hand steering the boat of his own fate, but in reality, it always came down to others.

The first time, the point that changed everything, was no doubt his old family. It’d been hundreds of years but Taekwoon still saw their faces clear as daylight. The fearful furrowing of his father’s brows. The annoyed scowl of his grandfather. The confused pouts of his siblings and the helpless eyes of his mother. All he had to do was close his eyes, and they reappeared, haunting him, echoes of long-forgotten words ringing in his ears. ’Something is wrong with you’ he still heard. ’You are broken. We cannot help you. It would be better for everyone if you left. It would be better for you too.’

 

Taekwoon would sometimes wonder what became of them, his long gone family. If they managed to forget the son with the cursed dreams, the boy who could not find his place in the largest of cities, whose life slowly ebbed away in the most thriving of towns. If they truly believed that having dreams of the vast blues of the ocean was a curse that would ruin their family. If Taekwoon leaving saved them, or instead broke them apart. But he never thought much of their mortality, that they would have been long dead. It never mattered until now.

 

When they found Hakyeon - when Hakyeon found them - Taekwoon thought they’d found peace.

And they did, in a way, they found peace and learnt what magic was again. Then they found Yura, and had to relearn love, too, until the cycle was full again. Until Taekwoon thought he’d never want anything else from life, again.

Until now.

 

‘I’m coming’ he told Yura, taking her hand and shooting upwards, pulling her close and lifting her up as they broke the surface, like when she was still a little girl, when playing with Taekwoon in the sea would make her giggle and laugh like nothing else.

She laughed now, still, her voice a million silver bells in the wind, and she shook the water out of her long, unruly hair before hugging Taekwoon, once they were ashore.

 

‘Come on now, papa. I’ve even made dinner!’

 

They found Hakyeon in his favorite spot, the small bench by the edge of the cliff, overlooking the horizon. Héyǐn was curled up behind him, her head resting on the ground by his feet, his hand slowly playing with her mane. She opened one great eye to blink at them, and Taekwoon, one foot still stuck in the past, wondered when she’d grown so much. She never outgrew Bō, and she wouldn’t, with the lean elegance of the river in her veins, but her body was as long now as Bō’s was robust, and her antler-like horns could definitely put Bō’s to shame.

 

Bō immediately strutted up to them, curling his neck around the bench from the other side, pushing his nose playfully against Héyǐn’s, and sighing when Hakyeon scratched his ear.

 

It was late afternoon, the sun a gently caressing warmth instead of the scorching brightness of noon, and Taekwoon allowed himself a moment to count the sun-kissed specks on Hakyeon’s skin again. They covered his face, his hands and arms and shoulders like constellations now, and Taekwoon could spend hours carefully connecting them with a reverent finger as Hakyeon lay next to him, half asleep and half awake.

He’d been spending more and more time asleep, these days.

 

‘Shouldn’t you be inside, resting?’ Taekwoon asked, plopping down onto the bench next to him and pulling his free hand into his lap to play with his fingers.

 

‘I’m resting here’ Hakyeon rolled his eyes, indignant, but his voice remained soft. ‘You smell salty, have you gone to pout in the dark waters again?’

 

‘He has!’ Yura supplied, cheerfully, and Taekwoon shot her a dirty look. Why was he constantly betrayed within his own family like so?

 

‘I recall you saying that I always smell like saltwater.’

 

‘Yes, you do. But now you smell like salt and angst. You can’t go hide in the sea every time you’re upset, Taekwoon’ Hakyeon clicked his tongue.

 

‘Dad’s right, you know’ Yura piped in, returning from the house with a folding table that she set down by the bench. Taekwoon squinted at her.

 

‘Whose side are you on?’

 

‘Mine, as she should be’ Hakyeon nodded, grinning. ‘Now where’s my “yes, dear”?’

 

‘Heh, go to hell’ Taekwoon shot back, but against his better judgement, against the heavy cloud of sadness that seemed to have taken permanent residence up in his chest, his mouth was curling up into a smile now.

 

‘In due time’ Hakyeon shrugged, watching as Yura reappeared to set the table with a steaming pot of soup.

 

‘So, where have you been travelling this time, dear?’ he asked, once they started eating. Taekwoon’s long-lost appetite didn’t miraculously show up this time, either, so he subtly pushed his bowl aside and just sat back, listening to them chat, letting Yura’s excited chatter and Hakyeon’s soft, warm hums ease the twists in his gut.

 

‘All around down the south! We started by the spring of this one river, and followed it all the way down to the sea. You know the one, with the Great City by the island… I snuck in, and guess what, your statue is still there! It’s so pretty… I can’t believe you never once went to see it, dad, honestly, if I had a statue made of me, I’d definitely want to boast!’

 

‘I’m not sure I’d even recognize myself in it, now’ Hakyeon smiled, resting his spoon-holding hand for a bit. ‘But they better made it pretty… I used to be a real beauty, in my time.’

 

‘You still are’ Taekwoon added, quietly, and Yura diverted her eyes, as always, when she caught Taekwoon looking at Hakyeon with open adoration. He guessed it was only natural, to be embarrassed by seeing her parents show affection - not that he’d know.

 

‘Yes, of course’ Hakyeon shrugged, and all at once, the twisting claws of anxiety were back  in Taekwoon’s lungs again.

‘Anyways, thank you for cooking, darling, your father still can’t make more than five dishes edible’ Hakyeon continued, swiftly changing subjects, and Taekwoon, useless, voiceless, let him. He’d found it increasingly more and more difficult to argue with Hakyeon, now that he could no longer ignore the shake in his hands, the limp in his steps, the unruly rattle of his weakening heart.

 

He still was, and would forever be, the most beautiful Taekwoon had ever seen - with his hair silver like the froth atop waves and his eyes sharp, always sharp and dark like onyx and the lines around his mouth constant reminders of his smile and his thin shoulders carrying the wisdom of the universe.

But there was just no arguing, no pretending, no ignoring his humanity, and with it, his mortality, anymore.

 

Taekwoon had been submerged into a deep, warm, colorful dream for so long he’d forgotten what it was like to be awake and subject to the harsh, painful ways of the world. He’d forgotten what it was like to be hurt.

 

After dinner, Yura and Hakyeon walked back to the house, his arm woven into hers for support, but Taekwoon remained, his thoughts howling louder than the wind picking up over the cliffs.

 

Héyǐn must have heard it, too, because she stood up to look out at the sea.

‘Look at all those ships you’re about to drown’ she said, nodding to the tide rolling in filled with their unease, and then she slipped quietly away, leaving Taekwoon and Bō alone to the clouds of their grief.

 

Taekwoon laid down to the ground, flat on his back to gaze upwards at the stars blinking to life, one by one, Bō’s neck against his side the only point of contact to reality that still felt real.

Clouds were amassing above head, thin puffs of dirty white drifting closer and closer until they pulled together into grand towers of unforgiving gray. The wind was turning, ruffling the dark, long blades of the seaside grass until the sides of the cliffs looked like rolling hills, and it brought with it the sharp, sweet tang of ozone and the ever-present, clean scent of salt from the sea.

 

A storm was coming.

 

 _‘I don’t care about the ships’_ Bō murmured, his voice in Taekwoon’s head sending reassuring shivers down his spine. His feelings broke all dams inside his mind, flooding them both, and he felt the dragon’s inconsolable sadness echo right back at him. He put his palms down, seeking out the feeling of the cold, hard rocks under the coarse grass and the thin layer of dirt, and let their thoughts ooze out their pores and trickle down, seep into the earth like rain.

 

The rocks listened. Huge, unbroken masses of stone that stood silent, unmoving guard over the beach and their home, that watched over their arrival and their excitement and them building their little house, watched them find and raise their daughter into the world’s brightest young dragon, watched them laugh and cry and love, held them up even now when it felt like there was no use, no point in standing up straight anymore, not if Hakyeon was soon to be gone.

 

These rocks were ancient and wise, older than Taekwoon and Bō could even imagine. These rocks held the footprints of giants and Elder Dragons, and prevailed. These rocks were the proof that it was possible to survive, that Bō and Taekwoon had a future to hold out for, too.

 

‘He’s dying, Taekwoon’ Bō spoke, startling Taekwoon from their shared thoughts. ‘He’s wasting away…’

 

‘I know…’ Taekwoon breathed, speaking the words for the first time. Maybe they were right, Hakyeon and Yura and the cliff. Maybe it was time to accept it, to accept that soon now, he was going to have to figure out his life all over again.

 

‘That’s not life, Taekwoon’ Bō grumbled, lifting his head to stare at the distance, before turning to Taekwoon.

The rocks didn’t agree, and because Taekwoon felt them, Bō felt them too.

 

‘That’s not living, that’s just… remaining. What do they even know, just because they’re old?’ Bō kept on, pushing himself up to his feet and glaring around viciously. ‘I don’t want our heart to turn into stone, too.’

 

‘Look out at the tide, Taekwoon. That’s us, not this stupid piece of rock! That’s us, in every drop, in every wave! That’s us, right there, ebbing this useless cliff away, one grain of sand at a time. What do they know, when even them with their thousand years don’t stand a chance against the ocean?’

 

‘We are that, Taekwoon’ Bō growled, his booming voice entwining with the first clash of thunder. He stood, head high, on the edge with the roaring sea under his massive feet, storm clouds crowning his robust head and the ancient, infallible, world-weaving magic of all the waters that ever were, sizzling like lightning as it coursed in his veins.

‘We are the Keepers of the Waves, and nobody, nothing takes from us! We are the ones that take! You can’t conquer the ocean!’

 

‘You can’t conquer us’ Taekwoon nodded, as Bo’s words struck him like an epiphany, and he stood as well, he stood tall and glared at the sky and then they lifted up into the air, together.

 

Sparks ran across their skin as they ascended into the heavy gray clouds, bolts of lightning flashing over the horizon as the storm approached.

 

They bathed in rain before emerging above the last of the clouds, and once up in the now still night sky full of diamonds, they opened their maw and roared and roared and roared, their anguish and anger and defiance so loud it dimmed the stars themselves.

 

~*~

 

By the time they got back home, Hakyeon was already resting in bed, and Yura sitting by his head under the window, absent-mindedly dragging a brush through her hair again and again as she listened to Héyǐn sing to the storm outside.

 

‘We’re leaving tomorrow’ Taekwoon said, ignoring Yura’s questioning glare, as soon as he stepped inside.

 

Apparently, Hakyeon hadn’t been asleep yet, because he pushed himself up against his pillow, his breath catching a little from the exertion.

‘Leaving where?’ he asked, confused, wrinkling his nose at Taekwoon until he dutifully dried himself and the puddles of water he dripped all over the floor.

 

‘The mountains, at first. Then, I don’t know which direction, but hopefully we will learn there.’

 

‘Why? What’s in the mountains, papa?’ Yura asked, bewildered, which Taekwoon couldn’t blame her for. It was possible she’d never seen him like this before.

But if there was a time for his daughter to learn the true nature of him, to teach her the true power of the dragons, it was now.

 

‘I met someone, a long time ago, someone who was hell-bent on finding Shangri-La. We’re going to see him, going to see if he succeeded, and if he hasn’t, we’re going to help him now.’

 

‘Shangri-La…’ Yura whispered, worrying her hands, as understanding drew on her. ‘Oh, papa, that’s a myth. That’s a legend, not a real place, it doesn’t exist! We can’t…’

 

‘You don’t know that. Nobody knows, but many believe… and that’s more than what we have, what we can do, if we stay and do nothing!’

 

‘Stop shouting, Taekwoon’ Hakyeon huffed, sitting up higher and patting the bed beside himself. Taekwoon sat down with a small sigh, letting Hakyeon entwine their fingers and press a kiss to the back of his hand.

 

‘Listen, love’ he started, waiting patiently until Taekwoon gave in and looked into his eyes. ‘I know what you’re trying to do, but… you don’t need to.’

‘I’ve lived a long, beautiful, perfect life. With you, with Bō, with Yura and Héyǐn. It’s been magic, an unspeakable, unthinkable miracle, since the first time I woke up to see you, hovering over me in that old cave, and I wouldn’t change a single minute of it. I also couldn’t and won’t ask for more.’

 

‘But I could’ Taekwoon retorted, holding onto Hakyeon. The fear was back, the bitter, burning taste bubbling up his throat like bile, the threat of looking away for a second, only to discover that Hakyeon was suddenly gone. ‘I can. I am. I’m not losing you. Not letting you go, Hakyeon, not ever. I can’t. I refuse to.’

 

‘Oh, love’ Hakyeon sighed, dropping his head to hide the sadness in his eyes. ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t think that’s your decision.’

 

‘Yes, yes it is.’ Taekwoon nodded. Conviction was boiling in his every fiber, until it overflowed and lit up his eyes. ‘I made a vow to you. I promised I’d never let anything come between us, that we’d be with you, forever. And we’ll die, before we break that promise. No, we will die, too, if we break that promise.’

‘You told me once that you couldn’t go back to the you before me, and that was a lifetime ago, Hakyeon. How can you expect me to do that? How can you think, how could anyone… how could anyone have had you, and then sit back and let life take you away? No, we’re taking you to Shangri-La, and we will break down the gates with bare hands, if they don’t let us in otherwise.’

 

Yura, who’d been listening in silence until now, choked on a sob, so Hakyeon pulled her onto the bed too, kissing her hair and rocking her gently, like he used to, when she was young and had a bad dream.

 

‘But even if… even if it was real, even if we found it… You could never leave. I’d lose you both…’ she sniffled, and Taekwoon’s heart shattered. He listened to the rain battering the walls outside, and remembered the times when he used to find solace in the chaos and destruction of the storm. Somewhere down in the water, Bō was calling out to Héyǐn, drawing her out into the open sea, teaching her to find the secret patterns of the world in the seemingly unruly waves.

 

‘As long as you have Héyǐn, you’ll never be alone’ Taekwoon whispered, hugging her close, waiting for her quiet crying to subside. ‘You and her, you’re a whole. But I’m… I wouldn’t be, angel. Not without your dad. You have your whole life ahead of you. But without him, we wouldn’t really be alive.’

 

‘I know that, papa’ she sniffled again, rubbing at her eyes. ‘I was… ready to let dad go, to mourn him and move on. I wasn’t as ready to watch you stay… But this, I don’t know. Going to Shangri-La, cheating death… It’s like you’re trying to play a god.’

 

Taekwoon chuckled, because she couldn’t even know how right she was. There were still many things they’d wanted to tell her, to teach her, before they could really let her hand go.

And Hakyeon must have had the same thought - or maybe it was his thought first, sneaking its way into Taekwoon’s head, like back in the old days, back before Hakyeon’s age finally truly caught up with him, back when Taekwoon could still lie to himself and believe that time wasn’t their enemy, when their minds were so used to each other that they sometimes had trouble telling them apart - Hakyeon must’ve shared the thought, because he caressed her face and spoke, staring at Taekwoon in the way that definitely made challenging the laws of the universe worth the risk.

 

‘I don’t know all about that, Yura’ Hakyeon finally said, looking between the two of them, his little army of magic, his family of dragons.

‘But I know this: if anyone can, it’s your father. After all, what makes a god, if not love?’

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Excuse my butchered googled hanzi OTL but:
> 
> 波濤洶涌 - Bōtāoxiōngyǒng - used to mean something like "waves surging forth / roaring sea"
> 
> 河隐 - Héyǐn - used to mean something like "river’s secret"
> 
> Soooooooo this was a very wild n emotional ride?!?!? GOSH I CANT BELIEVE ITS UP! Y'all i put my heart into this, a little bit...  
> So, uhm, kudos and comments are always appreciated (I'm lk lying, I literally live off them) BUT ANYHOW thank you for sticking with me till the end?!?!? I can't even tell how much writing this story meant to me, I've never put this much effort in anything I've written I think...  
> Anyhow please love my boys a lot and please come scream at me / hmu on tumblr @ hongbubs or on twitter @himchankimchije


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